Intergenerational transmission of intimate partner violence: Does gender make a difference?

Background: Past studies have shown that witnessing violence between parents in childhood is a predictor of future violence in intimate partnerships. Few, however, investigated this relationship in lower income country settings or looked at gender differences in intergenerational transmission of violence.

Methods: We used 1994, 2002, and 2005 data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey in Cebu, Philippines. This is a longitudinal data set following over 2,000 Filipino women and their index children (ICs) since the child's birth in 1983-1984.

Results: Prevalence of IPV perpetration was 19.9% for female and 5.6% for male ICs in 2005. Prevalence of victimization was 11.7% for female and 6.4% for male ICs. In 2002, 45.6% of the ICs reported having witnessed their parents/caretakers physically hurt one another during childhood. Logistic regression analysis showed that females were significantly more likely to report victimization when exposed to father-mother violence, (OR = 2.19, p = 0.004, 95% CI 1.28-3.76) or mother-father violence (OR = 1.83, p = 0.07, 95% CI 0.95-3.5) as compared to no violence. Males exposed to parental quarrelling were more likely (OR = 3.16, p = 0.03, 95% CI 1.09-9.14) to be IPV victims. For males, growing up in a household where more household decisions were joint between parents was protective against IPV perpetration (OR = 0.90, p = 0.04, 95% CI 0.80-1.0) and victimization (OR = 0.87, p=0.009, 95% CI 0.79-0.97). Witnessing violence between parents was not significantly associated with male perpetration or victimization.

Conclusions: Gender played a role in the intergenerational transmission of violence.