Men’s Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence in Vietnam: Gendered Social Learning and the Challenges of Masculinity

Kathryn M. Yount, Emory University
Eilidh Higgins, Emory University
Hoang Tu Anh, Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population
Kristin VanderEnde, Emory University
Tran Hung Minh, Consultation of Investment in Health Promotion Company (CIHP)
Sidney Ruth Schuler, FHI 360

Using survey data from 522 married men 18-51 years in Vietnam, we explored whether gendered social learning in boyhood and challenges to men’s expected status in marriage increase the risk that men perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) against their wives. Over one third (36.6%) reported perpetrating psychological, physical, or sexual IPV against their wife. Witnessing IPV as a boy (aOR=1.92), being physically maltreated as a boy (aOR=2.73), and being the same age or younger than one’s wife (aOR=1.74) were associated with higher adjusted odds of perpetration. Men with 13-18 grades of schooling had lower adjusted odds (aOR=0.56) of IPV perpetration than men with 12 or fewer grades. Programs to prevent men’s IPV perpetration should address the parenting practices of boys that legitimize men’s aggression and gendered status expectations in marriage, which when challenged, may provoke violence by husbands. Engaging men to endorse non-violent masculinities is an important consideration for prevention.