Methods for Assessing Attitudes toward Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Bangladesh

Sidney Ruth Schuler, Academy for Educational Development (AED)

This paper presents preliminary qualitative findings from a project to develop better methodological tools to understand women’s and men’s attitudes about intimate partner violence (IPV) in rural Bangladesh and their perceptions of norms about IPV in their communities. In-depth cognitive interviews with men and women and in-depth open-ended interviews with women are used to explore subjective understandings of standard survey questions that are meant to elicit individual attitudes about IPV. Findings suggest that additional context should be incorporated into questions on IPV attitudes to make responses to them more meaningful.