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Abstract
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Understanding intergenerational effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) is critical for preventing future transgenerational transmission of trauma, as well as treating individuals and families who are already impacted. Despite availability of data on witnessing parental IPV and directly experiencing IPV in national demographic and health surveys, research on these issues in Southeast Asia has been limited. This study offers important insight into this issue in the Philippines.
While the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in the Philippines offers more than a decade's worth of nationally-representative data on witnessing parental IPV and personal experiences of IPV, this study offers a first-time analysis of these measures, using data from women who participated in the most recent DHS, administered in 2017. The authors find that women exposed to parental IPV had more than twice the odds of both experiencing and perpetrating IPV. Further, those who witnessed IPV were more likely to report the combination of IPV victimization and perpetration than to report either victimization or perpetration alone. These findings align with prior research documenting witnessing IPV in parental relationships as a key risk factor for women's victimization from IPV in adulthood, in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, and South Asia (Ackerson & Subramanian, 2009; Fry et al., 2012; Mootz et al., 2022; Stake et al., 2020). It also extends prior research that demonstrates an association between witnessing parental IPV as a girl and using IPV (i.e., perpetration) as an adult woman, an area of inquiry that has largely been limited to studies from high income countries (HICs) or on male perpetration alone in low and middle income country (LMIC) contexts (Fonseka et al., 2015; Islam et al., 2017; Kimber et al., 2018).
We know from cross-national research conducted in other countries that numerous negative effects results from witnessing IPV as a child. These include developmental delays, adverse physical and mental health outcomes (e.g., headaches, depression), and risk behaviors (e.g., substance use), and those who witness IPV are often child victims of family violence, as well (Anderson & van Ee, 2018; Bacchus et al., 2017; Kieselbach et al., 2021; Louis & Reyes, 2023; Ravi & Black, 2022; Walker-Descartes et al., 2021).
FINDINGS from the authors' work contribute to the evidence that intergenerational impacts of IPV are substantial, and IPV prevention and intervention efforts not only help women but also support children and families (Anderson & van Ee, 2018), demonstrating the importance of such efforts for the Philippines. Prior research from the country, with youth from one metropolitan area in the Philippines found almost half of adolescents had witnessed physical IPV, which, in turn, increased risk for depression. Male participants who witnessed bidirectional parental IPV were more likely to report bidirectional psychological aggression with peers as young adults (Hindin & Gultiano, 2006; Mandal & Hindin, 2013)...
Language: en |