The Impact of Women's Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence and Gender Equity on Intimate Partner Violence Experience: Findings From a Longitudinal Study in Mwanza, Tanzania

Inequitable gender norms can manifest in attitudes about gender and intimate partner violence (IPV) acceptability and be risk factors for women's experience of male-perpetrated IPV. This longitudinal study explored the effect of Tanzanian women's attitudes toward gender equity and toward IPV on physical and/or sexual IPV experience with mixed-effects and cross-lagged regressions. Unadjusted mixed-effects regression shows that an increase in gender equity or IPV unacceptance is significantly associated with a decrease of IPV experience. Cross-lagged regression did not find a significant association. Other contextual factors, rather than women's attitudes toward gender equity and IPV, may be key determinants of IPV experiences.