Afghan Women’s Use of Violence against Their Children and Associations with IPV, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Poverty

A Cross-Sectional and Structural Equation Modelling Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID15499205
AuthorsJane Ndungu (0000-0003-3621-2462, Nelson Mandela University, corresponding author), Rachel Jewkes (0000-0002-4330-6267, South African Medical Research Council), Magnolia Ngcobo-Sithole (0000-0002-0765-829X, Nelson Mandela University), Esnat Chirwa (0000-0003-0471-4978, South African Medical Research Council), A Gibbs (0000-0003-2812-5377, South African Medical Research Council)
Year2021
Volume18
Issue15
Pages7923-7923
Publication date2021-07-27
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph18157923
PMID34360216
OpenAlexW3184378051
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited38

Children who experience violence from a parent are more likely to experience and perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) later in life. Drawing on cross-sectional data among married women enrolled in the baseline of a randomized control trial in Afghanistan, we assess risk factors for women's use of violence against their children, focused on women's own adverse childhood experiences and experiences of IPV, poverty, poor mental health and gender attitudes. Analysis uses logistic regression and structural equation modelling (SEM). In total 744 married women reported on their use of violence against a child, with 71.8% ( n = 534) reporting this in the past month. In regression models, their own experiences of witnessing their mother being physically abused, poverty during childhood, current food insecurity, their husband using corporal punishment on their child, current IPV experience, and other violence in the home were all associated with increased likelihood of women reporting corporal punishment. In the SEM, three pathways emerged linking women's childhood trauma and poverty to use of corporal punishment. One pathway was mediated by poor mental health, a second was mediated by wider use of violence in the home and a third from food insecurity mediated by having more gender inequitable attitudes. Addressing the culture of violence in the home is critical to reducing violence against children, as well as enabling treatment of parental mental health problems and generally addressing gender equity

Corporal punishment · Developmental psychology · Domestic violence · Environmental health · Mental health · Poison control · Political science · Poverty · Psychiatry · Structural equation modeling · Suicide prevention · Child Abuse and Trauma · Clinical Psychology · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Social Psychology

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