Botswana study validates intimate partner violence stigma scale

Researchers developed and tested a culturally specific scale assessing perceived intersectional stigma related to intimate partner violence (IPV) in Botswana. The known-groups study used interviews conducted in 2025 with 217 women survivors and 183 women reporting no IPV experience in urban and peri-urban areas. Analyses assessed scale structure, internal consistency and associations with established stigma measures, abuse severity, gender norms and mental health symptoms.

The resulting Botswana Culture-Salient Intersectional IPV stigma scale (BCSI-IPVSS) contained 11 items measuring a single dimension. Internal consistency was good (ω = 0.859), with acceptable model fit (RMSEA = 0.055; TLI = 0.984). Scores correlated with other IPV stigma scales (Spearman’s ρ = 0.24–0.40; p ≤ 0.001). Among survivors, higher scores were associated with harmful community gender norms (ρ = 0.52), survivor-blaming attitudes (ρ = 0.41), depression (ρ = 0.36), social anxiety (ρ = 0.26), generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress (both ρ = 0.23).

Among women reporting no IPV experience, stigma scores were associated with harmful gender norms, survivor-blaming attitudes, generalized anxiety and lower perceived social support, but not depression, social anxiety or post-traumatic stress. The findings support the scale’s use in assessing IPV stigma in this population; they do not establish that stigma causes poorer mental health. Further investigation of these relationships is needed, and applicability beyond the studied settings remains uncertain.