This study assesses women's attitudes towards intimate partner violence (IPV) in Guyana using data from the 2019 MICS for women aged 15 to 49 years.
It examines the prevalence of women who believe a husband is justified in beating his wife for reasons such as: “goes out without telling him”, “neglects the children”, “argues with him”, “refuses sex”, “burns the food”, “has another partner”, “stays out late/partying”, “refuses to cook or clean”, “overspends”, or “denies access to her cellphone”.

The overall prevalence of women justifying IPV was 17.9%, ranging from 2.7% for minor reasons to 10.0% for infidelity. This attitude was more prevalent in rural (19.3%) and interior (30.1%) areas compared to urban (10.2%) and coastal (16.1%) areas. Women from the poorest households (25.9%) were more likely to justify IPV than those from the richest households (11.6%). Factors such as rural residence, ethnicity, geographic region, education level, wealth, computer usage, and radio listening frequency were significantly associated with these attitudes.

The study concludes that over one-sixth of women surveyed believe IPV is justified under certain circumstances, highlighting the need for public health programs targeting specific geographic, ethnic, and economic groups to change these attitudes and address this public health issue.

The full research paper is available here: Plos ONE