Women’s attitudes towards formal and informal support-seeking coping strategies against intimate partner violence

Abstract

This article examines women’s attitudes towards informal, formal social and formal legal support-seeking strategies against intimate partner violence (IPV). This study found that the majority of the participants were likely to seek help from informal, formal social and formal legal agents. Multivariate analyses revealed that women’s attitudes significantly varied by women’s age, women’s working status, experience of violence, receipt of micro-credit, women’s decision-making authority, husband’s age, husband’s education, family economic status and family type. We suggest that increased employment opportunities and increased number of micro-credit recipients may change women’s attitudes from avoidance coping strategies to help-seeking coping strategies.