Do neighbourhoods matter? Country- cluster- and individual effects on attitudes towards intimate partner violence in low- and middle-income countries

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The study will address significant knowledge gaps in our understanding of women's and men's attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women (IPV) at the neighbourhood-level in 54 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Central-, East- and South Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North- and Sub-Saharan Africa. The study builds on the lead investigator's recent research [ES/L009811/1] and will inform evidence-based prevention in 3 original areas: 1) Geographical patterning and spatial analyses of neighbourhood attitudes amongst women and men in LMICs2) Identifying the social, economic and political influences on IPV attitudes across neighbourhoods, regions and countries.3) Impact of legislation and mediating effects of socio-economic and political factors like on IPV attitudes. Attitudes justifying IPV is the strongest predictor of IPV perpetration/victimisation. There is growing recognition of country-level social, political and economic influences on societal acceptability of IPV. Our recent multi-country study on IPV attitudes at country- and individual-levels, other emergent research and evidence from community-based organisations highlight the urgent need for research into the impact of local contexts, that is, neighbourhoods, on the acceptance of IPV. The impact of neighbourhood features such as poverty, access to education and educational attainment, paid employment, women's political participation, and rural/urban residence on IPV justification has been understudied. This would be the first study in LMICs across geographical regions to examine neighbourhood risk factors of IPV acceptance amongst women and men within and across national and cross-national environments. It would provide much-needed data for strategic development of local, national and international prevention programming.The influence of IPV legislation on attitudes is complex and little understood. Whilst over 140 countries currently have explicit laws on IPV, prevalence of IPV and its acceptance remains widespread. We will tease out how key socio-economic and political factors like education, media access, and political conflict may mediate the impact of legislation on IPV acceptability.The study will use nationally-representative, internationally comparable household surveys with individual-, neighbourhood, regional- and country-level data on both women's and men's IPV attitudes; and a meta-database constructed by the project's lead investigator using high quality topic-specific and UN databases on countries' social and economic development. This will be the first study using spatial and mapping techniques in LMICs to highlight neighbourhood patterns in women's and men's attitudes to IPV and the 'hotspots' of high IPV acceptance. Cutting-edge multilevel statistical analyses will help identify the contribution of individual, neighbourhood, regional and national socio-economic and political factors to IPV acceptance levels.The research team is uniquely placed to carry out the project with expertise in IPV attitudinal and primary prevention research, intimate knowledge of and extensive experience in using the Demographic and Health Surveys and relevant country-level datasets, and expertise in the proposed analytical techniques. Building on a robust and unique meta-database of quality-checked and harmonised country-level indicators constructed by the lead investigator the proposed project will contribute considerable added value without incurring excessive costs. The project's multidisciplinary Advisory Group of internationally renowned experts in IPV research informed the development of this project and will continue to input on study design, analyses and interpretation of findings. They will facilitate dissemination and impact activities through their organisations, country and regional offices, collaborating community-based organisations, and their leverage with national governments.