Negative attitudes related to violence against women: gender and ethnic differences among youth living in Serbia.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify to what extent negative attitudes towards intimate partner violence against women are present among young women and men living in Serbia, in Roma and non-Roma settlements. METHODS: We used the data from the 2010 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in Serbia, for the respondents who were 15-24 years old. Regression analyses were used to examine the association between judgmental attitudes, socio-demographic factors and life satisfaction. RESULTS: In Roma settlements, 34.8% of men and 23.6% of women believed that under certain circumstances men are justified to be violent towards wives, while among non-Roma it was 5.6 and 4.0%, respectively. These negative attitudes were significantly associated with lower educational level, lower socio-economic status and being married. In multivariate model, in both Roma and non-Roma population women who were not married were less judgmental, while the richest Roma men were least judgmental (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.18-0.87). CONCLUSIONS: Violence prevention activities have to be focused on promoting gender equality among youth in vulnerable population groups such as Roma, especially through social support, strengthening their education and employment.