Religion and Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence: A Cross-National Study

Abstract

In a world where violence against women remains pervasive and serious, intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most common and harmful forms of violence against women. Since religion and religiosity have been found to be influential in shaping people’s attitudes toward IPV, this global-scale study investigates the net effects of religion and religiosity on attitudes toward IPV with country-specific influences controlled. Using the data from the World Values Survey conducted between 2017 and 2020 that had 69,578 respondents with Ordinary Least Square regression (OLS) models, this study finds that being religious is related to less accepting attitudes toward IPV, while the frequency of attending religious activities does not have a statistically significant relationship with attitudes toward IPV. Variations in attitudes are found among different religious denominations as well. People belonging to some religious denominations show more acceptance of IPV, so the nuanced differences among specific religions are crucial in creating discrepancies in attitudes across religious people. The results call for more future interdisciplinary and mix-method research to further our understanding of the religious impact on attitudes toward IPV and to promote gender equality globally.