Private but Misunderstood? Evidence on Measuring Intimate Partner Violence via Self-Interviewing in Rural Liberia and Malawi

Abstract

Women may under-report intimate partner violence (IPV) in surveys. We conduct an experiment in rural Liberia and Malawi in which women were asked IPV questions via self-interviewing (SI) or face-to-face interviewing (FTFI). Many women appear to misunderstand questions in SI, and we find significant effects of SI on innocuous placebo questions. Because the prevalence of IPV is typically well below 50%, such measurement error will tend to bias IPV reporting upwards. Indeed, we find that SI significantly increases reported incidence of IPV (by 13 percentage points in Malawi and 4 percentage points in Liberia), but we cannot rule out that these increases are spurious.

Note:

Funding Information: US-AID and IPA.

Conflict of Interests: None to declare.

Ethical Approval: The research protocol for this study was approved by the IRBs of UCSC, the University of Liberia, and the Malawi National Committee on Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities (NCRSH).

Keywords: intimate partner violence (IPV), measurement, ACASI, sensitive behaviors

JEL Classification: C93, O12, J16, I32