Men’s Report of Domestic Violence against Their Wives and Women’s Current Use of Modern Contraceptives

Mai Do, Tulane University

This study examines the associations between men’s report of domestic violence against their wives and women’s use of modern contraceptives in Bangladesh. Data come from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The analysis is limited to women whose husbands were selected for interviews with the domestic violence module, resulting in a sample of 3,039 women. The main independent variables are men’s self-reported use of physical and/or sexual violence against their wives; the outcome is women’s self-reported current use of any modern method of contraception. Preliminary findings show a strong, positive association between men’s physical violence against their wives and women’s current use of modern contraceptives. Men’s use of sexual violence did not show any significant association with contraceptive use. The next analytic steps include control for possible endogeneity due to the cross-sectional nature of the data.