The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #41179

Dale Huntington, ScD¹, Leila Caleb Varkey, ScD¹, Emma Ottolenghi, MD¹, and Anurag Mishra, PhD². (1) Frontiers in Reproductive Health, Population Council, 4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 280, Washington, DC 20008, 202-237-9400, dhuntington@pcindia.org, (2) FRONTIERS, Population Council, New Delhi, 53 Lodi Estate, New Delhi, New DELHI, 110003, India

Domestic violence is an area where little is know in terms of differences between women and men’s self-reports of violence. The perceptions of violence are known to be influenced by cultural norms in many societies that promote a sense of accepting routine verbal and physical mistreatment. This has confounded accurate reporting of violence when simplistic measurement is used in household surveys. The fear of violence has been suggested as an important reason for not discussing the use of male contraceptive methods, particularly as condom usage has connotations of extra-marital sexual relations. These discussions become even more delicate during pregnancy. This paper will report on results from a clinic-based study in Deli, India that interviewed pregnant women during an early pre-natal visit and separately interviewed their husbands, using the same battery of questions. Sensitive measures were developed that probed into self-reports of verbal, physical and sexual violence, and explored perceptions of the respondents around the causes and consequences of the violence. The findings will be discussed within the larger context of other, violence-related research in India and methodological issues will be highlighted for future research.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation participants will be able to

• Identify differences and similarities between women and men's reports of violence during pregnancy.
• Explain methodological considerations in the measurment of violence in survey research.
• Discuss the significance of the findings from the Delhi based study in relation to other violence research conducted in India.

Keywords: Violence, Pregnancy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.