Private but Misunderstood? : Evidence on Measuring Intimate Partner Violence via Self-Interviewing in Rural Liberia and Malawi

Women may under-report intimate partner violence (IPV) due to several social and psychological factors. This study conducts a measurement experiment in rural Liberia and Malawi in which women were asked IPV questions via self-interviewing (SI) or face-to-face interviewing. About a third of women incorrectly answer basic screening questions in SI, and SI generates placebo effects on innocuous questions even for those who "pass" screening. Because the probability of responding "yes" to any specific IPV question is less than 50 percent, and that IPV is typically reported as an index (reporting yes to at least one question), such misunderstanding increases IPV reporting. In Malawi, SI increases the reported incidence of any type of IPV by 13 percentage points on a base of 20 percent; in Liberia, the study finds an insignificant increase of 4 percentage points on a base of 38 percent. Our results suggest SI may spuriously increase reported IPV rates