Intergenerational transmission of intimate partner violence among women: Evidence from the 2017 Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey

Intimate partner violence (IPV) substantially harms women's overall health worldwide. The intergenerational cycle of IPV among women remains underexplored from the perspective of victimization and perpetration, and by types of subsequent IPV. The 2017 Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey dataset of 12,248 currently in-union (married or cohabiting) women aged 15 to 49 were utilized in this study. The main exposure variable was measured by the question: “as far as you know, did your father ever beat your mother?“. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to investigate the association between being ever exposed to parental IPV and (1) women's IPV victimization (by types: any, physical, sexual, and emotional) and (2) IPV perpetration (physical) by women against their husbands or male partners. Further, multinomial logistic regression examined the association between exposure to parental IPV and the experience of being an IPV victim only, perpetrator only, or both. We have found that women who were exposed to parental IPV were more likely to experience IPV victimization (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.9, 2.4 for any IPV; OR: 2.3, 95% CI: 2.0, 2. for physical IPV; OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.6, 2.4 for sexual IPV; and OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.8, 2.2 for emotional IPV), and also perpetrate physical IPV themselves (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.9, 2.4) compared to those unexposed to parental IPV. Moreover, women exposed to parental IPV were three times more likely to be both a perpetrator and a victim of IPV (OR: 3.1, 95% CI: 2.7, 3.7), much higher than the odds of being a victim only (OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.8, 2.2) or a perpetrator only (OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.6, 2.). In summary, exposure to parental IPV was associated with Filipino women being victims and perpetrators of IPV themselves. The integration of violence prevention within parenting and community programs can be considered to prevent the perpetuation of the intergenerational cycle of IPV.