Abstract
Research suggests that poverty is a key driver of intimate partner violence (IPV), however detailed analysis suggests that this relationship is not clear, either for women’s experience or men’s perpetration of IPV. We explored associations between poverty and IPV using cross-sectional data from the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures cluster randomized control trial, in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa, with young (18–30) people. Using logistic regression and structural equation modelling we assess associations between poverty and women’s experience and men’s perpetration of physical and/or sexual IPV in the past 12 months. 680 women and 677 men were recruited into the study between September 2015 and September 2016. The analyses highlight how specific forms or measures of poverty intersecting with gender identities shape IPV. For men we found indicators of economic provision were associated with IPV perpetration, while for women food-insecurity was key to IPV experience. We also found similarities between women and men. First, food-insecurity and childhood traumas shaped pathways to substance misuse and poor mental health that increased IPV. Second, there was a resilience pathway in both models, whereby those with more education had increased gender equitable attitudes and fewer controlling behaviours, which reduced IPV. Interventions to reduce IPV need to work to reduce household food insecurity, but these need to be combined with gender transformative interventions. Interventions should also focus on reducing the impact of mental health and substance misuse. Finally, working to increase educational attainment is a long-term critical intervention to reduce IPV.Trial registration: NCT03022370. Registered 13 January 2017, retrospectively registered.
Highlights
While women’s experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) is common globally across all economic strata, with an estimated 30% of women experiencing physical and/or sexual IPV in their lifetime [1], there is a broad assumption that poverty is a key driver of IPV [2, 3]
There was not much variation amongst the cohort, given the inclusion/exclusion criteria, for many of the measures, and as such this reflects findings from one very specific group. This group of young women and men living in urban informal settlements experience and perpetrate exceedingly high levels of IPV
While studies tend to focus on individual level attributes for risk and protective factors, this analysis has clearly shown the importance of structural drivers of IPV in this population, namely food insecurity, which has multiple impacts on young people’s lives, in turn increasing vulnerability or perpetration of IPV
Summary
While women’s experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) is common globally across all economic strata, with an estimated 30% of women experiencing physical and/or sexual IPV in their lifetime [1], there is a broad assumption that poverty is a key driver of IPV [2, 3]. At the household level there are relatively consistent associations between household food-insecurity and IPV, whereby higher levels of food insecurity increase women’s experiences of IPV [4, 5], even when controlling for overall economic status. Studies on household socio-economic status (SES), have broadly suggested that living in a household with a higher SES is associated with reduced recent IPV [7]. It is suggested that the association between household food insecurity and IPV, is linked to increased levels of stress and conflict in such households over the lack of resources, as well as women’s increased economic dependency on men, making it harder to leave abusive relationships [2, 8]
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