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Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent in high- as well as low-income contexts. It results in a substantial public health burden and significant negative socioeconomic and health outcomes throughout the life-course. However, limited knowledge exists about IPV during early adolescen...

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Autores principales: Kidman, Rachel, Kohler, Hans-Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7059948/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32142550
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230085
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author Kidman, Rachel
Kohler, Hans-Peter
author_facet Kidman, Rachel
Kohler, Hans-Peter
author_sort Kidman, Rachel
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent in high- as well as low-income contexts. It results in a substantial public health burden and significant negative socioeconomic and health outcomes throughout the life-course. However, limited knowledge exists about IPV during early adolescence. This period is critical during the transition to adulthood for at least two reasons: it is when the majority of adolescents in low-income countries first encounter dating, sexuality and partnerships, often with older adolescents or adults, and it is also the period when lifelong patterns of violence and norms about acceptable IPV are formed. The current study is one of the first to measure IPV prevalence among young adolescents in a low-income setting, examine the potential etiology, and investigate relationships with gender ideology, poverty, mental health and childhood adversity. METHODS: We surveyed 2,089 adolescents aged 10–16 in Malawi using standardized instruments. We estimated the prevalence of IPV, and use multivariate logistic regression to test potential correlates. RESULTS: More than a quarter (27%) of ever-partnered adolescents in Malawi report being victimized. A substantial proportion of both male and female adolescents (15%) report committing violence against their partner. Girls were more likely than boys to report being a victim of sexual IPV (24% versus 8%), and boys more likely to perpetrate such (9% versus 1%). Almost 10% of the sample had both committed and been a victim of IPV. Cumulative childhood adversity (e.g., physical abuse, witnessing domestic violence) was a consistent and strong correlate of IPV victimization (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.30) and of perpetration (aOR 1.35). Depression and PTSD were likewise associated with IPV victimization in the overall sample. Notably, gender ideology was not predictive of either victimization or perpetration, even among boys. CONCLUSIONS: IPV is common for both male and female young Malawian adolescents, and includes both victimization and perpetration. IPV compounds other adversities experienced by adolescents in this low-income setting, and it is rarely alleviated through help from the health system or other formal support. These findings underscore the need to intervene early when interventions can still break destructive pathways and help foster healthier relationships. This focus on early adolescence is particularly critical in low-income countries given the early onset and rapid pace of the transition to adulthood, with sexual activity, dating and partnership thus being common already in young adolescence. Promising interventions would be those that reduce violence against or around children, as well as those that reduce the impacts of such trauma on mental health during adolescence.
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spelling pubmed-70599482020-03-12 Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity Kidman, Rachel Kohler, Hans-Peter PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent in high- as well as low-income contexts. It results in a substantial public health burden and significant negative socioeconomic and health outcomes throughout the life-course. However, limited knowledge exists about IPV during early adolescence. This period is critical during the transition to adulthood for at least two reasons: it is when the majority of adolescents in low-income countries first encounter dating, sexuality and partnerships, often with older adolescents or adults, and it is also the period when lifelong patterns of violence and norms about acceptable IPV are formed. The current study is one of the first to measure IPV prevalence among young adolescents in a low-income setting, examine the potential etiology, and investigate relationships with gender ideology, poverty, mental health and childhood adversity. METHODS: We surveyed 2,089 adolescents aged 10–16 in Malawi using standardized instruments. We estimated the prevalence of IPV, and use multivariate logistic regression to test potential correlates. RESULTS: More than a quarter (27%) of ever-partnered adolescents in Malawi report being victimized. A substantial proportion of both male and female adolescents (15%) report committing violence against their partner. Girls were more likely than boys to report being a victim of sexual IPV (24% versus 8%), and boys more likely to perpetrate such (9% versus 1%). Almost 10% of the sample had both committed and been a victim of IPV. Cumulative childhood adversity (e.g., physical abuse, witnessing domestic violence) was a consistent and strong correlate of IPV victimization (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.30) and of perpetration (aOR 1.35). Depression and PTSD were likewise associated with IPV victimization in the overall sample. Notably, gender ideology was not predictive of either victimization or perpetration, even among boys. CONCLUSIONS: IPV is common for both male and female young Malawian adolescents, and includes both victimization and perpetration. IPV compounds other adversities experienced by adolescents in this low-income setting, and it is rarely alleviated through help from the health system or other formal support. These findings underscore the need to intervene early when interventions can still break destructive pathways and help foster healthier relationships. This focus on early adolescence is particularly critical in low-income countries given the early onset and rapid pace of the transition to adulthood, with sexual activity, dating and partnership thus being common already in young adolescence. Promising interventions would be those that reduce violence against or around children, as well as those that reduce the impacts of such trauma on mental health during adolescence. Public Library of Science 2020-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7059948/ /pubmed/32142550 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230085 Text en © 2020 Kidman, Kohler http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kidman, Rachel
Kohler, Hans-Peter
Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity
title Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity
title_full Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity
title_fullStr Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity
title_full_unstemmed Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity
title_short Emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: Perpetration, victimization and adversity
title_sort emerging partner violence among young adolescents in a low-income country: perpetration, victimization and adversity
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7059948/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32142550
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230085
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