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image of The Link between Happiness and Wife Beating: An Investigation of Attitudes and Perceptions of Indians

Abstract

Background

Domestic violence involves threats or use of physical or sexual violence, or both, that can cause injury. The causes of domestic violence are low education, poverty, dowry issues, caste, religion, patriarchal culture, . Though domestic violence is a subject of inquiry across every society, there is little research to understand the link between happiness and attitude towards domestic violence.

Objective

The study dovetails with attitudinal, satisfaction, and socio-economic variables and aims to identify significant factors behind favorable attitudes towards wife beating in India. The paramount importance is placed on understanding the link between attitude towards wife beating and satisfaction variables such as happiness, life satisfaction, and financial satisfaction.

Methods

The discussion is based on the 6th wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) and revolves around the question, “How justified do you think for a man to beat his wife?”. The responses were coded on a 1 to 10 scale where 1 means never justified and 10 means always justified. The analysis included 3070 responses comprising 1345 female and 1725 male respondents. The ordered logit regression technique was used to explain variation in attitudes towards wife beating.

Results

In India, men rule culturally. In reality, a collision between culture and modernization continues to occur. There are variables, such as employed women, educated, religious, urban residents, and information literate, that reduce the incidence of wife beating. In this study, the statistical analysis reveals that a favorable attitude toward wife beating is more or less an urban, pro-rich, upper-caste phenomenon. Women and religious persons are against wife beating. Though respondents of higher income deciles favor wife beating, respondents who are financially satisfied and happy in life oppose wife beating. The higher the level of happiness and financial satisfaction, the more likely individuals are to oppose violence against women.

Conclusion

The findings confirm that happier people are prosocial and against domestic violence. Happy women have strong sentiments against the violence of beating women. It can be surmised that improvement in satisfaction variables can restrict social evils like wife beating.

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2025-03-03
2025-05-08

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The Link between Happiness and Wife Beating: An Investigation of Attitudes and Perceptions of Indians
Bentham Science Publishers ; https://doi.org/10.2174/012772316X332016250304062339
/content/journals/css/10.2174/012772316X332016250304062339
/content/journals/css/10.2174/012772316X332016250304062339
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  • Article Type:     Research Article
Keywords: domestic violence ; India ; financial satisfaction ; wife beating ; happiness ; world values survey ; Attitude ; women
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