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The Effects of Husband’s Alcohol Consumption on Married Women in Three Low-Income Areas of Greater Mumbai

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Abstract

Gender-based violence rooted in norms, socialization practices, structural factors, and policies that underlie men’s abusive practices against married women in India is exacerbated by alcohol. The intersection of domestic violence, childhood exposure to alcohol and frustration, which contribute to drinking and its consequences including forced sex is explored through analysis of data obtained from 486 married men living with their wives in a low-income area of Greater Mumbai. SEM shows pathways linking work-related stress, greater exposure to alcohol as a child, being a heavy drinker, and having more sexual partners (a proxy for HIV risk). In-depth ethnographic interviews with 44 married women in the study communities reveal the consequences of alcohol on women’s lives showing how married women associate alcohol use and violence with different patterns of drinking. The study suggests ways alcohol use leads from physical and verbal abuse to emotional and sexual violence in marriage. Implications for gendered multi-level interventions addressing violence and HIV risk are explored.

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Notes

  1. Child marriage in India, while prohibited by law since 1929, and steadily declining is still a reality in India particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. UNICEF recognizes child marriage as a violation of human rights as young girls are not yet-physically, mentally and emotionally ready to perform the obligations of marriage and are often unprepared to protect themselves against violence and exploitation (www.unicef.org/india/child_protection.Feb.2010_1536.htm).

  2. As Levine's test of the homogeneity of variances was found to be significant at the .05 alpha level, the Games-Howell post hoc test was used, as it does not assume the equality of variances.

  3. Chi-square difference tests were used to make the determination of whether the unconstrained or a constrained model would be used. Here, the unconstrained model refers to a model in which all parameters are estimated separately for both groups, while in the constrained model, one or more sets of parameters are constrained to be equal between the two groups. If a constrained model does not have significantly worse model fit, it is preferred over an unconstrained or less constrained model as constrained models are simpler, or more parsimonious. A chi-square difference test revealed the unconstrained model to be preferred over any of the constrained models, suggesting the use of two separate structural equation models, one including respondents who drink at home, the other including respondents who primarily drink at other locations.

  4. Initially, the following variables were included in the model predicting violence: region of residence, religion, the difference in education between husband and wife, the difference in age between husband and wife, the hypermasculinity scale, the work related stress scale, number of partners, relationship with wife scale, years married, whether the respondent has children, the index of childhood exposure to alcohol, alcohol total, and pattern of drinking. The finalized models, presented in this paper, were determined after a series of revisions. The majority of the variables removed from the model were removed as they were not found to directly or indirectly affect violence.

  5. Direct effects are defined as those influences (factors/independent variables) that are unmediated by any other variable in the model. They are specified as coefficients in the SEM matrix and displayed on the line linking one variable to another in the figure depicting the model. Indirect effects are mediated by at least one intervening variable. They are determined by subtracting the direct effects from the total effects [28].

  6. In the remaining seven cases violence had ended; in two instances the women had fled the situation through divorce or separation; in one case the husband had stopped drinking; in another instance the intervention of friends and neighbors resulted in an end to the violence and in the remaining three cases the violence ended although the drinking did not.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Community Research, 2 Hartford Square West, Ste. 100, Hartford, CT, 06106, USA

    Marlene J. Berg, David Kremelberg & Jean J. Schensul

  2. International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India

    Purva Dwivedi, Supriya Verma, Kamla Gupta & S. K. Singh

  3. St. Olaf’s College, Northfield, MI, USA

    Devyani Chandran

Authors
  1. Marlene J. Berg
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  2. David Kremelberg
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  3. Purva Dwivedi
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  4. Supriya Verma
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  5. Jean J. Schensul
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  6. Kamla Gupta
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  7. Devyani Chandran
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  8. S. K. Singh
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Correspondence to Marlene J. Berg.

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Berg, M.J., Kremelberg, D., Dwivedi, P. et al. The Effects of Husband’s Alcohol Consumption on Married Women in Three Low-Income Areas of Greater Mumbai. AIDS Behav 14 (Suppl 1), 126–135 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-010-9735-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-010-9735-7

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