The Economics of Domestic Violence: Evidence From Bangladesh

This project aims to test the scalability and cost-effectiveness of edutainment-soap operas designed to challenge harmful social norms and promote resilience-as a strategy to improve mental health and reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) in rural Bangladesh. Investigators will run a clustered randomized control trial in which villages will be randomized to one of three versions of the same soap opera: (i) Norms: Challenges harmful norms that condone IPV, targeting the belief that violence is an acceptable way to assert control or maintain reputation, (ii) Norms + Skills: builds on the norms campaign by adding CBT-based skills for stress management and non-violent conflict resolution, (iii) Placebo: No violence content. Investigators will evaluate the impact on attitudes towards IPV and IPV incidence.

NCT Number	NCT06916377
Lead Sponsor	Yale University Collaborators: Grand Challenges Canada, Weiss Foundation, World Bank - Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), Fund for Innovation in Development, USAID Development Innovation Ventures, The Agency Fund, International Growth Centre (IGC), National Science Foundation
Conditions	Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), Intimate Partner Violence Prevention
Enrollment	440 participants
Start Date	2023-09-19
Primary Completion	2025-12 (estimated)
Study Completion	2025-12 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2025-04-08