Domestic violence and women's employment in Nigeria: evidence from the 2023/2024 NDHS

Abstract

Domestic violence remains a pervasive challenge in Nigeria, with 23% of women aged 15–49 reporting at least One form of intimate partner violence according to the 2023/2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). This study examines the association between severe domestic violence and women's employment status in Nigeria, while assessing the moderating role of key socioeconomic factors. Using a sample of 23,566 ever-married women from the 2023/2024 NDHS, the study employs survey-adjusted logistic regression to estimate the association between severe domestic violence and employment status, controlling for Education, wealth, age, residence, region, religion, and marital status. An adjusted Wald test confirms that interaction terms between domestic violence and socioeconomic moderators are jointly significant (F(7, 1299) = 2.97, p = 0.004). The main effects model shows that severe domestic violence is negatively associated with employment but is only marginally significant at the 10% level (OR = 0.876, p = 0.072), indicating limited direct evidence of association. The moderation analysis reveals more nuanced findings: wealth significantly buffers the negative association between violence and employment (p = 0.001), while secondary Education (p = 0.039), rural residence (p = 0.037), and other Christian affiliation (p = 0.029) are associated with stronger employment penalties among violence-exposed women. Education, wealth, region, religion, and marital status emerge as the strongest and most consistent predictors of employment overall. Multicollinearity diagnostics confirm no problematic collinearity among predictors (mean VIF = 1.99), and the overall model is jointly significant (F(19, 1287) = 75.96, p < 0.001). The study concludes that while the direct association between domestic violence and women's employment is weak, socioeconomic context meaningfully conditions this relationship, and structural factors remain the dominant determinants of women's employment in Nigeria. Policy interventions should prioritise expanding educational access, reducing regional inequality, and strengthening economic support for survivors of violence, particularly in Northern Nigeria.