Gender‐Equitable Parental Decision Making and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Bangladesh

• Author: Yuk Fai Cheong,Kathryn M. Yount,Laurie James‐Hawkins,Katherine A. Roof,Ruchira T. Naved,Daniel C. Semenza
• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12579

D C. S Rutgers University

K A. R Emory University∗

L J-H University of Essex∗∗

Y F C Emory University∗∗∗

R T. N International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research∗∗∗∗

K M. Y Emory University∗∗∗∗∗

Gender-Equitable Parental Decision Making and

Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in

Bangladesh

Objective: This article examines the relation-

ship between the exposure of men as children

to gender-equitable parental decision mak-

ing and the potential for subsequent later life

engagement in intimate partner violence (IPV)

in Bangladesh.

Department of Sociology, Anthropology,and Criminal

Justice, Rutgers University – Camden, 405-7 Cooper St.,

Camden, NJ.

∗Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University,

1518 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA.

∗∗Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe

Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, England.

∗∗∗Department of Psychology, Emory University,26 Eagle

Row, Atlanta, GA.

∗∗∗∗International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research,

68, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani, Mohakhali, Dhaka

1212, Bangladesh.

∗∗∗∗∗Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory

University,1518 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA

(kyount@emory.edu).

Key Words: decision making, domestic violence, family

well-being, gender roles.

Background: Although researchers have

recently begun to explore multilevel inu-

ences on IPV perpetration, no studies have

examined how decision making between parents

at home and within the community relates to IPV

perpetration in low-income settings. Drawing

on a theoretical framework of gendered social

learning, gender-equitable parental decision

making may be an important protective factor

against IPV.

Method: This study uses a random probability

sample of 1,499 married men in Bangladesh.

The main outcome is physical IPV perpetra-

tion in adulthood, whereas two exposure vari-

ables measure the equity of parental decision

making in the man’s childhood home and his

current community. A series of two-level neg-

ative binomial models, controlling for perti-

nent individual- and community-level factors,

are estimated.

Results: Exposure in childhood to more equi-

table decision making between parents is

negatively associated with a man’s physical IPV

perpetration in adulthood. Gender-equitable

parental decision making within one’s current

920 Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (August 2019): 920–935

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12579

Gender-Equitable Parental Decision Making 921

community is not signicantly associated

with IPV.

Conclusion: Boys who grow up exposed to more

equitable decision making between parents

in the home may be less likely to engage

in physical IPV perpetration as an adult.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global pub-

lic health problem affecting millions of women

around the world. Dened as “physical vio-

lence, sexual violence, stalking, and psycho-

logical aggression (including coercive acts) by

a current or former intimate partner” (Breid-

ing, Basile, Smith, Black, & Mahendra, 2015,

p. 9), IPV is especially prevalent in certain

regions of the world, including Africa (37%), the

Middle East (37%), and Southeast Asia (38%;

Devries et al., 2013; Grose, Roof, Semenza, Ler-

oux, & Yount, 2019). Although a range of fac-

tors has been identied to increase a man’s

risk of perpetrating IPV, the predominant focus

of this research has been in higher income

countries at the individual level (García-Moreno

et al., 2013). However, researchers recently have

begun to explore the multilevel inuences on

men’sIPV perpetration in lower income settings,

including parts of South Asia (Gupta et al., 2018;

Heise & Kotsadam, 2015; Tran, Nguyen, &

Fisher, 2016; VanderEnde, Yount, Dynes, & Sib-

ley, 2012; Yount, Miedema, Martin, Crandall, &

Naved, 2016; Yount, Roof, & Naved, 2018).

IPV is particularly pervasive and highly

normalized in Bangladesh, where one in two

ever-married women older than age 15 reports

experiencing physical or sexual IPV during

their lifetime (Bangladesh Bureau of Statis-

tics, 2016; Naved et al., 2017). Research has

generally focused on negative experiences that

increase men’s risk for perpetrating IPV, such as

exposure to masculine dominance in childhood

and community norms of masculine dominance

(Heilman & Barker, 2018; Jakupcak, Lisak, &

Roemer, 2002; Pleck, Sonenstein, & Ku, 1993;

Yount, Crandall, et al., 2016; Yount, Roof,

et al., 2018). The inuence of these factors has

been found across a range of social settings,

regardless of study design (Heilman & Barker,

2018; Heise & Kotsadam, 2015; Hindin, Kishor,

& Ansara, 2008; Rydstrøm, 2006; Tran et al.,

2016; VanderEnde et al., 2012). However, no

research has examined the inuence of wit-

nessing positive parental dynamics on violence

perpetration. This study analyzes data from a

probability-based community sample of men

in Bangladesh (N=1,499) to examine the

relationship between a man’s experience in

childhood of gender-equitable parental decision

making and within his community as an adult

with his risk of perpetrating physical IPV. We

draw on the social ecological theory of IPV

etiology of Heise (1998) alongside Hearn’s

(1998) gendered social learning theory (GSLT)

to frame the analysis and interpret the results.

B

Multilevel Social Ecology in Bangladesh

and IPV Perpetration

A social ecological framework accounts

for interrelated personal, situational, and socio-

cultural factors to examine the etiology

of violence against women across multiple

levels of the social system (Dutton, 1995; Heise,

1998). In the context of violence perpetration,

such frameworks tend to emphasize the risk,

rather than the protective, factors across levels

that relate to the perpetrator’s experiences.

The four levels in this risk-oriented social eco-

logical framework include elements in one’s

personal history, microsystem, exosystem, and

macrosystem that predispose one to violence

perpetration.

Risk factors for IPV perpetration among men

in Bangladesh have been found among each

level. One’s personal history refers to individual

experiences that inuence one’s reactions to the

world around them throughout the life course.

Certain individual factors increase the risk for

later life IPV perpetration, including witnessing

interparental violence in childhood and experi-

encing maltreatment in childhood (Das, Amin,

Johnson, & Hossain, 2008; Jewkes, 2002; Yount,

Krause, & Miedema, 2017). The microsystem

refers to family-related situational factors asso-

ciated with IPV perpetration, including male

dominance in the family, marital conict, alco-

hol use, men’s control over family wealth, and

lack of social support from either the husband’s

or the wife’s family (Capaldi, Knoble, Shortt, &

Kim, 2012; Heilman & Barker, 2018; Jewkes,

2002; Stith, Smith, Penn, Ward, & Tritt, 2004;

Walton-Moss, Manganello, Frye, & Campbell,

2005). Exosystem, or community-level, factors

refer to social structures within one’s immediate

social setting. Risk factors at this level for IPV

include unemployment and low socioeconomic

status, delinquent peer associations, and low

community-level collective efcacy (Jewkes,