IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1795.html

The Effects of Intimate Partner Violence on Children’s Health Outcomes in Egypt

Author

Listed:
  • Marina Hesham

    (Cairo University)

  • Ariane Dupont-Kieffer

    (University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)

  • Racha Ramadan

    (Cairo University)

Abstract

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is the most widespread form of violence against women globally, affecting roughly one in three women. Although its direct consequences for women’s health and well-being are well established, much less is known about how IPV affects the next generation. This study investigates the relationship between various forms of IPV and health outcomes among children under the age of five in Egypt, where mothers are the main caregivers. Drawing on nationally representative data from the 2014 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), we explore the effects of IPV on three key child health indicators: birth weight, morbidity, and nutritional status. To mitigate selection bias, we apply Propensity Score Matching (PSM) methods. The results reveal that exposure to IPV during pregnancy leads to significantly lower birth weights. Moreover, children of mothers who experience IPV face higher risks of illness and worse nutritional outcomes, particularly an increased likelihood of wasting.

Suggested Citation

  • Marina Hesham & Ariane Dupont-Kieffer & Racha Ramadan, 2025. "The Effects of Intimate Partner Violence on Children’s Health Outcomes in Egypt," Working Papers 1795, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 Sep 2025.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1795
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://erf.org.eg/publications/the-effects-of-intimate-partner-violence-on-childrens-health-outcomes-in-egypt/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://erf.org.eg/app/uploads/2025/09/1758798858_682_963571_1795.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reem Hashad, 2019. "Changes In Height-For-Age Of Egyptian Children 1995 To 2014," Working Papers 1357, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 Oct 2019.
    2. Rishi Caleyachetty & Olalekan A Uthman & Hana Nekatebeb Bekele & Rocio Martín-Cañavate & Debbie Marais & Jennifer Coles & Briony Steele & Ricardo Uauy & Peggy Koniz-Booher, 2019. "Maternal exposure to intimate partner violence and breastfeeding practices in 51 low-income and middle-income countries: A population-based cross-sectional study," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(10), pages 1-15, October.
    3. Päivi Mattila-Wiro, 1999. "Economics Theories of the Household: A Critical Review," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1999-159, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2025. "Intra-household bargaining, resource allocation and cost of gender-based violence in Egypt: the role of asset ownership and gender role attitudes," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 5(10), pages 1-35, October.
    5. Marian Atallah & Marina Hesham, 2024. "Unpaid Care Work in Egypt: Gender Gaps in Time Use," Working Papers 1755, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 Nov 2024.
    6. Nuhu, Ahmed Salim, 2015. "Domestic Violence, Intrahousehold Bargaining and Child Health Development in Ghana," EconStor Preprints 125776, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    7. Debayan Pakrashi & Sarani Saha, 2024. "Intergenerational consequences of spousal violence: effect on nutritional status of children," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 67-94, March.
    8. Carolina V. N. Coll & Andrea Wendt & Thiago M. Santos & Amiya Bhatia & Aluisio J. D. Barros, 2023. "Cross-National Associations between Age at Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence among Young Women: An Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 48 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.
    9. Li, Chao & Sun, Daoming, 2023. "Women’s bargaining power and spending on children’s education: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    10. Mondal, Dinabandhu & Paul, Pintu, 2020. "Association between intimate partner violence and child nutrition in India: Findings from recent National Family Health Survey," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    11. Conti, Gabriella & Heckman, James J., 2012. "The Economics of Child Well-Being," IZA Discussion Papers 6930, IZA Network @ LISER.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalid, Neelum & Nawaz, Rashed & Zhou, Zhongliang & Gong, Shaoqing, 2026. "Child malnutrition in Pakistan: pathways linking maternal intimate partner violence, gender inequality, healthcare utilization, and age at marriage," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    2. Hendrik Jürges & Luca Stella & Sameh Hallaq & Alexandra Schwarz, 2022. "Cohort at risk: long-term consequences of conflict for child school achievement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 1-43, January.
    3. Chelsea M. Cooper & Mary Drake & Justine A. Kavle & Joyce Nyoni & Ruth Lemwayi & Lemmy Mabuga & Anne Pfitzer & Mary Makungu & Elizabeth Massawe & John George, 2021. "Implementing a Novel Facility-Community Intervention for Strengthening Integration of Infant Nutrition and Family Planning in Mara and Kagera, Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-21, April.
    4. Gabriella Conti & James J. Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto, 2016. "The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 28-65, October.
    5. Alex Proshin, 2020. "Impact of Child Subsidies on Child Health, Well-being and Parental Investment in Human Capital: Evidence from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey 2011-2017," PSE Working Papers halshs-02652268, HAL.
    6. Miroslav Verbič & Nela Kačmarčik-Maduna, 2018. "Child Well-being in Transition Countries as an Intergenerational Investment in the Development of Human Capital," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1077-1105, August.
    7. SUN, Xiaoqin & YANG, Jianlei & LIU, Honglei, 2025. "Women’s bargaining power and household expenditure: Nonlinear effects from Chinese microdata," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 775-800.
    8. Khalid Abu-Ismail & Verena Gantner & Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2020. "Socioeconomic inequalities in child malnutrition in Egypt," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 78(2), pages 175-191, August.
    9. Julia Alamillo, "undated". "Family Structure and Reproduction of Inequality: A Decomposition Approach," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 848d4b9e0bd14c8191ed1277b, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Jean de Dieu Habimana & Aline Uwase & Noel Korukire & Sara Jewett & Maryse Umugwaneza & Lawrence Rugema & Cyprien Munyanshongore, 2023. "Prevalence and Correlates of Stunting among Children Aged 6–23 Months from Poor Households in Rwanda," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-12, February.
    11. Pan, Jia & Zhao, Haoqing & Li, Chengyou, 2025. "Women’s bargaining power and household financial vulnerability: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PD).
    12. Atkins, Rose & Turner, Alex James & Chandola, Tarani & Sutton, Matt, 2020. "Going beyond the mean in examining relationships of adolescent non-cognitive skills with health-related quality of life and biomarkers in later-life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    13. Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu & Deniz Karaoğlan, 2016. "Early Childhood Development and Human Capital Formation: The Case of Turkey in Global Perspective," ERC Working Papers 1605, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised May 2016.
    14. Das, Tanu & Roy, Tamal Basu & Roy, Ranjan, 2021. "Reintegration with family and intimate partner violence (IPV) against women among the returnee migrant worker’s family during COVID-19 induced lockdown: A Block-level analysis using multinomial logistic regression model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    15. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2025. "Intra-household bargaining, resource allocation and cost of gender-based violence in Egypt: the role of asset ownership and gender role attitudes," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 5(10), pages 1-35, October.
    16. Martha H. Stinson & Peter Gottschalk, 2015. "Is there an Advantage to Working? The Relationship between Maternal Employment and Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers 15-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    17. Arnaud Chevalier & Olivier Marie, 2017. "Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection, and Children’s Educational Outcomes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(2), pages 393-430.
    18. Krafft, Caroline, 2026. "Why are women's employment rates declining in Egypt?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1719, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Kazi Abdul, Mannan & V.V, Kozlov, 2005. "The Impact of Remittances on Labour Force in Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis of Labour Participation and Employment," MPRA Paper 103797, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2005.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1795. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Namees Nabeel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.