Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2019: attitudes to violence against women

Findings from the 2019 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey on the attitudes of the Scottish public to the following forms of violence against women: sexual violence, domestic abuse (physical, verbal, mental and emotional), sexual harassment and commercial sexual exploitation.


Footnotes

1. Fieldwork was scheduled to complete on 5 April 2020.

2. Interviewers are all trained to follow the NatCen procedure on 'Disclosure of Harm'. This sets out what to do if an interviewer encounters a situation during an interview where they feel that the safety and wellbeing of an individual could be at risk.

3. This excludes the 295 addresses that were out of scope.

4. Domestic abuse, particularly coercive control, is best understood as a course of conduct, which has a cumulative impact. While a number of the questions included on SSA 2019 examine attitudes towards individual incidents, our set of scenarios on persistent text messaging is intended to enable an exploration of differences in perceptions between isolated occurrences and more established patterns of behaviour. The questionnaire design employed here represents a novel approach to addressing attitudes towards controlling behaviour through quantitative survey research. However, it is important to note that coercive control often involves many different kinds of behaviours and strategies being layered on top on one another, and this is not something that this survey explored. Qualitative and mixed-methods research would be needed to develop a more nuanced level of understanding of public attitudes in this area.

5. This increase from 85% to 89% was statistically significant.

6. There were no significant differences by area deprivation on attitudes to rape or on myths on rape discussed later in this chapter.

7. Area deprivation on SSA 2019 is measured using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2020 divided into quintiles. SIMD 2020 measures the level of deprivation across Scotland - from the least deprived to the most deprived areas. It is based on 38 indicators in seven domains of: income, employment, health, education skills and training, housing, geographic access and crime. Further details are included in the separate technical report.

8. There was no equivalent relationship in the context of rape within marriage.

9. There was no equivalent relationship in the context of rape by a stranger.

10. Including those who have dissolved a civil partnership or are separated from a civil partnership.

11. As people who identify with a religion and those with no formal qualifications are more likely to be older, it is not clear which of these three factors is driving these differences in attitudes.

12. Overall levels of agreement with the statements were low. Therefore, few statistically significant differences were found between subgroups in levels of agreement.

13. As people with no formal qualifications and those on lower household incomes are more likely to be older, it is not clear which of these three factors is driving these differences in attitudes.

14. The apparent change between 2014 and 2019 in the proportion reporting the woman's behaviour is 'very seriously wrong' when she often puts down her husband was not statistically significant.

15. There were no significant differences by income on attitudes to verbal domestic abuse or physical domestic abuse discussed later in this chapter.

16. There were no significant differences by area deprivation on attitudes to verbal domestic abuse or physical domestic abuse discussed later in this chapter.

17. As people who identify with a religion are more likely to be older, it is not clear which of these two factors is driving these differences in attitudes.

18. Education was also significantly associated with the perceived level of harm verbal abuse causes a woman but there was no clear pattern.

19. As people with no formal qualifications are more likely to be older, it is not clear which of these two factors is driving these differences in attitudes.

20. The differences between the views of those who would buy a princess doll for the boy without saying anything and those who would not buy the boy a princess doll were not statistically significant.

21. 'Those who were more reluctant to buy it' represents a combination of those who said they would 'make her put the truck back and pick a toy more common for girls' and those who said they would buy it but 'first try to get her to pick a toy that's more common for girls'.

22. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.069

23. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.070

24. The question on a man sending a number of texts to his wife throughout the evening was not asked in 2014.

25. This scenario could also be considered as domestic abuse and be prosecuted under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

26. There were no significant differences by whether people held stereotypical views on gender roles on attitudes to sexual harassment discussed in this chapter.

27. The difference between those aged 65 and over (50%) and those aged 18 to 34 (57%) was not statistically significant.

28. This difference is marginally significant: p= 0.086

29. This difference is marginally significant: p= 0.078

30. This difference is marginally significant: p= 0.093

31. It is not clear which of these three factors - age, education or religious identity - was driving the change in attitudes between 2014 and 2019.

32. This scenario could also be considered as domestic abuse and be prosecuted under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

33. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.055

34. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.070

35. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.056

36. Woodzicka, J. and Ford, T. (2010); Ford, T., Boxer, C., Armstrong, J. and Edel, J. (2008).

37. The follow-up question was not asked of those who thought the friend's sexist joke was 'not at all wrong'.

38. Answer options: 'very likely', 'quite likely', 'neither likely nor unlikely', 'quite unlikely', 'very unlikely'.

39. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.054

40. 3% said 'don't know' or 'refused'.

41. As people who identify with a religion, those with no formal qualifications, and those on lower household incomes are more likely to be older, it is not clear which of these four factors is driving these differences in attitudes.

42. This difference is marginally significant: p=0.056

43. In SSA 2014, respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed that: 'You shouldn't try to stop teenage boys from watching pornography that shows people having sex (not just actors pretending to do so); it is just a normal part of growing up'. The statement in 2019 was: 'Teenage boys aged around 14 or 15 watching pornography that shows people having sex (not just actors pretending to do so) is just a normal part of growing up'

44. This difference was marginally significant: p=0.068

45. As people with no formal qualifications and those on lower household incomes are more likely to be older, it is not clear which of these three factors is driving these differences in attitudes.

46. This difference was marginally significant: p=0.065

47. This difference was marginally significant: p=0.094

Contact

Email: social-justice-analysis@gov.scot

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