Violent experiences in childhood are associated with men's perpetration of intimate partner violence as a young adult: a multistage cluster survey in Malawi

Abstract

PurposeTo examine the association between exposures to violence in childhood, including exposure to multiple forms of violence, with young men's perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Malawi. MethodsWe analyzed data from 450 ever-partnered 18- to 24-year-old men interviewed in the Malawi Violence Against Children and Young Woman Survey, a nationally representative, multistage cluster survey conducted in 2013. We estimated the weighted prevalence for perpetration of physical and/or sexual IPV and retrospective reporting of experiences of violence in childhood and examined the associations between childhood experiences of violence and perpetration of IPV using logistic regression. ResultsAmong young men in Malawi, lifetime prevalence for perpetration of sexual IPV (24%) was higher than for perpetration of physical IPV (9%). In logistic regression analyses, the adjusted odds ratios for perpetration of sexual IPV increased in a statistically significant gradient fashion, from 1.2 to 1.4 to 3.7 to 4.3 for young men with exposures to one, two, three, and four or more forms of violence in childhood, respectively. ConclusionsAmong young men in Malawi, exposure to violence in childhood is associated with an increased odds of perpetrating IPV, highlighting the need for programs and policies aimed at interrupting the intergenerational transmission of violence.