Women’s Empowerment During the Pandemic in Bolivia: The Effect of Gendered Power on Intimate Partner Violence and its Consequences for Mental Health

Scheuer, Alisha (2022) Women’s Empowerment During the Pandemic in Bolivia: The Effect of Gendered Power on Intimate Partner Violence and its Consequences for Mental Health. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating consequences for women, especially in the Global South, where generally men have more relational power than women. Bolivia is one of the countries with the highest Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) rates worldwide. This study aimed to explore how young women in Bolivia were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. It further analyzed the link between having resources (education and income) and the risk for the experience of physical and sexual IPV, and how experiencing IPV affects women’s mental health and life satisfaction. The cross-sectional study included a sample of 199 young Bolivian women. I expected that higher levels of education should be a protective factor for the experience of IPV and that the effect of income on IPV would be moderated by decision-making power. Finally, I expected IPV to have a negative effect on mental health and life satisfaction. The impact of the pandemic on women's lives was explored and the main findings were associated with financial losses and increased workload for women. Furthermore, results did not conclusively support my hypotheses. Education was only associated with physical IPV of the past 2 years. Additionally, experiencing IPV was significantly associated with having worse mental health. Implications of these findings for women’s empowerment and gender equity are discussed. Keywords: Intimate partner violence, gendered power, mental health, pandemic, Bolivia.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Hansen, N.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Applied Social Psychology (ASP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	30 Aug 2022 14:48
Last Modified:	01 Sep 2022 09:34
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1382

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