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Attitudes and Norms About Intimate Partner Violence: What Makes Women More Impressionable?

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We evaluate the causal impact of average neighbourhood attitudes justifying intimate partner violence (IPV) on own attitudes using nationally representative data from the fifth wave of the National Family Health Survey of India. To address endogeneity concerns in estimating peer in uences, we utilize exogenous variation in the average exposure of neighbourhood women to their parental IPV in a leave-one-out instrumental variable strategy. We find robust evidence that a 1 sd increase in a woman's average neighbourhood attitudes justifying IPV leads to a 0.36 sd increase in her attitudes justifying the same. We establish the importance of peer in uences on a woman's acceptability of IPV as justifi- able, especially among less educated, unemployed, having no assets or media exposure and bearing more daughters than sons, making them more impressionable. This underscores the need for enhanced implementation of policies targeting women's empowerment to arrest the perpetration of gender-biased social norms.

Source: Feminist Economics

DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2026.2684427

Authors: Gaurav Dhamija, Mehreen Mookerjee, Manini Ojha, Sanket Roy

Institutions: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Zayed University, O. P. Jindal Global University, American University of Sharjah

Language: English

Topic: Intimate Partner and Family Violence

Subfield: Health

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W7026524082

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