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Consanguineous Marriage: Protective or Risk Factor for Intimate Partner Violence?

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Book cover Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

Consanguinity is still common in the Middle East. This chapter uses the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from Egypt (2005; N = 5,240) and Jordan (2007; N = 3,444) to examine the relationship between consanguinity and intimate partner violence (IPV). Binary logistic regression models used to assess the association revealed that IPV, namely physical, emotional, and sexual violence during the past year to the survey, was fairly similar in both countries. Physical violence was 18 % in Egypt and 12 % in Jordan; emotional violence was 10 % in both countries, while sexual violence was lower: 6 % in Jordan and 4 % in Egypt. Jordan has a higher rate of consanguinity (39 %) compared to Egypt (33 %). Findings show significant association between consanguinity and experience of emotional, but not physical, or sexual IPV in the past year in both countries. Duration of marriage, education, and wealth were also found to be important determinants.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Family Medicine Department, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Jinan Usta & Dima Dandachi

  2. UN-ESCWA, Beirut, Lebanon

    Marwan Khawaja

  3. Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar

    Mylene Tewtel

Authors
  1. Jinan Usta
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  2. Marwan Khawaja
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  3. Dima Dandachi
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  4. Mylene Tewtel
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Correspondence to Jinan Usta .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Geography, Auburn University at Montgomery, Montgomery, Alabama, USA

    Yanyi K. Djamba

  2. Department of Sociology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA

    Sitawa R. Kimuna

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Usta, J., Khawaja, M., Dandachi, D., Tewtel, M. (2015). Consanguineous Marriage: Protective or Risk Factor for Intimate Partner Violence?. In: Djamba, Y., Kimuna, S. (eds) Gender-Based Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16670-4_5

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