JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Violence against women is a major challenge worldwide and in India. Patriarchal social and gender norms suppress disclosure of violence experienced by women.

Objective:

In this study, to reduce violence against women as the distal goal, we adopted a two-pronged strategy grounded in Carey’s model of communication, approaching the issue in an incremental way. First, we asked whether an intervention could promote interpersonal communication about violence against women as an initial step. Second, we reasoned that, if people could be persuaded to talk about the issue, we would not only keep the issue salient in people’s minds, but we may also improve their self-efficacy to intervene.

Methods:

Setting We conducted a randomized control trial of women of reproductive age using a two-arm study design embedded within a parent trial implemented in Odisha, India. Intervention Participants received thirteen entertainment education episodes daily as phone calls. Participants 411 participants were randomly assigned to the violence against women intervention arm or a control arm if they were active mobile phone owners and assigned to the treatment arm of the parent trial. Primary outcome measure Our primary analysis involved a structural equation model with interpersonal communication as a potential mediator on the pathway between intervention exposure and bystander self-efficacy to prevent violence against women.

Results:

Findings from structural equation modeling demonstrated the significant mediating effect of interpersonal communication on the relationship between program exposure and bystander self-efficacy. Exposure was positively related to interpersonal communication (ß = .21, SE = .05, z = 4.31, p < .001) and bystander self-efficacy (ß = .19, SE = .05, z = 3.82, p < .001).

Conclusions:

Our results demonstrate participant engagement in interpersonal communication following exposure to "light" entertainment education programs via feature phones in rural settings can result in improved self-efficacy to prevent violence against women. Clinical Trial: The parent trial was registered with Clinical Trial Registry-India (CTRI) (CTRI/2018/10/016186) on 29 October, 2018.