Spousal Concordance–Discordance in Justifying Wife Beating and Wife’s Experience of Spousal Physical Violence in India

Abstract

Nearly one-third of ever-married Indian women experienced spousal violence at some point in their lives, with the highest proportion reporting physical violence. Couple-focused research, rather than individual-level analysis, can better capture the dynamics of attitudes toward violence within families, an area still underexplored in the Indian context. This study, using a dyadic approach, assesses the association between spousal concordance and discordance in attitude toward wife-beating and the experience of spousal physical violence among married women in India. Bivariate analysis and binary logistic regression were performed on data from 44,933 couples covered in the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21). An informed consent procedure was followed, and only those who voluntarily consented were interviewed. The odds of experiencing spousal physical violence was highest (Adjusted odds ratios [AOR] = 2.02, confidence interval [CI] [1.98, 2.07]) when both spouses had concordance in justifying wife-beating. Among the discordant couples where only the wife justified wife-beating exhibited a higher likelihood (AOR = 1.92, CI [1.88, 1.96]) of spousal violence than among the couples where only the husband justified it (AOR = 1.20, CI [1.18, 1.23]). Couples in which both spouses had witnessed their father beating their mother in their childhood were more likely (AOR = 3.44, CI [3.34, 3.54]) to experience spousal physical violence. The findings indicate that concordance in spouses’ justification of wife-beating is a strong predictor of spousal physical violence, with the risk being highest when both partners approve of such behavior. Policy efforts should prioritize couple-focused interventions to address shared gender norms within marriages, as acceptance of wife-beating by both partners, particularly women, is linked to higher risk of spousal physical violence. Programs should target patriarchal beliefs and entrenched gender attitudes through joint counseling, community education, and behavior-change initiatives to reduce the social acceptance of wife-beating and strengthen gender equity.