Are Households Affected by Intimate Partner Violence Less Likely to Enroll Children into Early Education in India: Findings from the Fifth National Family Health Survey, 2019 to 2021

Abstract

Studies largely from high-income countries show that children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) face potential adverse health and developmental outcomes. Limited research has focused on whether IPV exposure affects children’s early education participation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where early education is gaining traction. This study examines whether young children aged 3 to 5 years, living in households affected by IPV, are less likely to be enrolled in school using nationally representative data from India. The study involved secondary analysis of data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), a demographic and health survey conducted in India, which provided data on 19,822 children aged 3 to 5 years. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were utilized to explore the relationship between child exposure to IPV and early education enrollment. Our findings from the univariate regression model show that children from households where women reported experiencing IPV were less likely to enroll in early education (OR = 0.83, 95% CI [0.73, 0.94]), and these findings remained significant even after adjusting for child-level covariates (e.g., child sex and age, other young children in the household) (adjusted OR = 0.81 [0.71, 0.92]). However, after further adjusting for household-level demographic confounders, this significant association was lost. These findings demonstrate that IPV in the household may affect children’s participation in early education, but observed effects may be explained by greater socioeconomic vulnerability in households in which IPV is occurring. These findings suggest that programs supporting child entry into early education should not simply target socioeconomically vulnerable households, but they may also need to support women in children in these households who may be vulnerable to violence.