Link between Family Violence and Child Health: Lessons for Maternal and Child Health Promotion

Multiple studies suggest that family violence has negative effect on children's biological, cognitive, and social emotional development. However, little is known about family violence at country level. The predictors for family violence and consequences on population's child health are unclear. This study investigates these issues using county-level data. Data is drawn from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) project, which is a national-level household survey project that collects socioeconomic and health indicators related to children. There are 67 countries participating in MICS project (UNICEF, 2006). Thirty-seven countries with family violence data (collected between 2000 and 2007) were included in final analyses. Family violence was measured by harsh/violent discipline and domestic violence. Two predictors of family violence (adult literacy and country income), and three health outcome indicators (child mortality rate, disability and child labor) were investigated. We hypothesize that low income countries and countries with low adult literacy rate will have higher rate of family violence; and higher rate of family violence is associated with high mortality, child disability, and child labor rates. Contrary to hypotheses, family violence was not associated with adult literacy and income. Family violence measures were also not associated with mortality rates nor were they associated with child disability. Family violence was only associated with child labor outcome—high rate of violent discipline was associated with high child labor rate [r=.48], and high rate of domestic violence was associated with high child labor rate [r=.56]. Implications for violence prevention and maternal and child health promotion will be discussed.