Prevalence and determinants of intimate partner violence against mothers of children under-five years in Central Malawi

Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of mothers, their partners, and children

Variable	Age (years)	N = 538	Percentage
Mothers’ characteristics	15–24	224	41.6
	25–34	209	38.8
	35–49	105	19.5
	Education
	No education	81	15.1
	Primary	370	68.8
	Secondary	87	16.2
	Religion
	CCAP	275	51.1
	Catholic	63	11.7
	Pentecostal churches	200	37.2
	Ethnic background
	Chewa	524	97
	Other tribes	14	3
	Has no confidant	144	26.8
	Age comparison with partner
	About the same age	290	53.9
	Partner five years older	152	28.4
	Partner five years Younger	5	0.9
	Partner 6–10 Years older	57	10.6
Children’s characteristics	Sex
	Female	263	48.9
	Male	275	51.1
	Age range
	1–5	72	13.4
	6–11	90	16.7
	12–23	156	29
	24–59	220	40.9
Husbands’ characteristics	Age category
	15–24	87	16.2
	25–34	245	45.5
	35–49	206	38.3
	Educational level
	No education	77	14.3
	Primary	303	56.3
	Secondary	154	28.7
	Smoke	138	26.0
	Polygamous	119	22
	Drink alcohol	230	43
	Infidelity	161	30
Household characteristics	Poverty level (US$ 1.90/day)
	Below poverty line	515	95.7
	Above poverty line	23	4.3
	Food insecure	320	59.5
	Time taken to draw water (wife)
	<30 min	314	58
	≥ 30 min	224	42
	Number of children
	One	168	31.2
	Two	121	22.5
	Three	106	19.8
	Four	61	11.3
	Five or more	79	14.7

ISSN: 1471-2458