Consultant & Faculty, Department of Community & Family Medicine, Far Eastern University –NRMF, Philippines

1. CORRELATES OF WIFE ABUSE AMONG MARRIED MEN Maria Fidelis C. Manalo, MD, MSc Consultant & Faculty, Department of Community & Family Medicine, Far Eastern University –NRMF, Philippines E-mail: lizamanalomd@yahoo.com

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES • To list the correlates of wife abuse among married men • To understand the mechanism behind identified correlates of wife abuse • To enumerate the results of the Reproductive Health Survey 2000 done by the UNFPA and Department of Health, Philippines

3. PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES • Understand the problem of domestic violence • Know the profile of men who beat or hit their intimate partners • Develop preventive, therapeutic and rehabilitative strategies---on the individual, family and societal levels

4. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE • Any coercive behavior perpetrated by someone who is or was involved in an intimate relationship with the victim • A potentially fatal problem from which no woman is immune

5. INTRAINDIVIDUAL Excessive drinking, Personality disorders Biological or Neurophysiological disorders Intimate Violence Theory: Broad Categories & Risk Factors

6. Intimate Violence Theory: Broad Categories & Risk Factors • SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL • Social learning: exposure to violence in the family ones grows up in

7. SOCIOCULTURAL Social location: social class, education, income, employment status Socio-structural & family processes: traditional gender roles in families Intimate Violence Theory: Broad Categories & Risk Factors

8. History of Violence in the Family of Origin • Most widely accepted risk factor • The family is the training ground for violence. • The use of ordinary physical punishment such as spanking is associated with child abuse and wife beating. Straus, et al

9. Intergenerational Transmission of Violence: Mechanism • Modeling the parental behaviors observed. • Observation of parental violence in childhood diminishes men’s self-esteem. (Stith and Farley) • In turn, lowered self-esteem increases marital stress, alcoholism, and approval of marital violence.

10. Intergenerational Transmission of Violence: Mechanism • Normative approval of marital violence was also directly influenced by the process of social learning • The development of attitudes towards women is also affected by having witnessed parental marital violence. -Alexander, Moore and Alexander

11. Emotional dependence Insecurity Low self-esteem Low empathy Low impulse control Poor communication & social skills Aggressive & hostile personality styles Antisocial personality Narcissism Anxiety Depression Personality Risk Factors in Male Batterers

12. Disrupts cognitive functioning Impairs judgement & memory Distorts perceptions Alcohol Abuse as a Risk Factor

13. Educational Attainment and Partner Violence • Hotaling and Sugarman’s review found that higher educational level was associated with less violence. • Downs et al, however, found that absence of a college education is associated with a high frequency of both moderate and severe violence.

14. Straus et al found that partner violence was most common among individuals with at least some high school education. Martin et al however reported greater proportions of abusive men than nonabusive men having low levels of education(<5 yrs). Educational Attainment and Partner Violence

15. Educational Attainment and Partner Violence • Rollins and Oheneba-Sakyi’s research on Utah households, however, found no differences between violent and nonviolent families on the basis of education.

16. Households in which the husband is unemployed or employed only part-time have increased rates of violence. Unemployment or part-time work with few, if any, benefits is very stressful economically for families. Employment as Risk Factor

17. Employment as Risk Factor • Other researches however, have found no relationship between employment status and violence among intimates. Hotaling & Sugarman, 1990 Rollins & Oheneba-Sakyi, 1990

18. Employment Status as Risk Factor • Rates of violence between husbands and wives have been found to be twice as high in families of blue-collar workers than in families of white collar workers.

19. Employment Status as Risk Factor • McLaughlin et al also found that rates of moderate aggression were twice as high among working- and middle-class husbands, compared with upper-class husbands.

20. Occupational Status Discrepancy as Risk Factor • Smith found that households in which the wife works, or works more than her male partner, may be at greater risk for spousal violence. • Men may use physical violence to compensate for their inability to be the primary breadwinner in the family.

21. Occupational Status Discrepancy as Risk Factor • Some evidence suggests, however, that violence is more likely to occur in couples in which the husband has a much higher occupational status than his wife. Hornung et al, 1981

22. Yllo and Straus have suggested that, on the one hand, in a couple in which the wife has the higher status, the husband may feel threatened by this and use violence to restore his authority. Social Status Discrepancy as Risk Factor

23. Social Status Discrepancy as Risk Factor • In a couple in which the wife has a much lower status than that of her husband , on the other hand, he may use violence as a mechanism of control and dominance.

24. Low Income as Risk Factor • Families living in poverty may suffer from stress because of their inability to meet their needs with the resources available to them. • This stress may lead to frustration and possibly aggression.

25. Social Status Discrepancy as Risk Factor • A Philippine study found that prevalence of domestic violence is not correlated with the 1994 poverty incidence using Spearman’s rank correlation across regions (rs=0.14). Bascos-Deveza, 2001

26. Age When Entering Marriage as a Risk Factor • McLaughlin et al found that the highest rates of partner violence were among those 30 yrs old and younger (average:18-24 yrs). • Martin et al alsoreported that abusive men were more likely than nonabusive men to cohabit with their wives at a younger age (<20 yrs).

27. Early Stage of Marriage as a Risk Factor • O’Leary and associates found that 27% of men and 36% of women indicated that they had engaged in aggression one and a half (1 1/2) years after their marriage.

28. Male Dominance vs. Equality Between Partners • Wife beating is more common in households where power is concentrated in the hands of the husband or male partner. Coleman & Straus, 1990; Levinson, 1989; Strauset al, 1980; Yllo & Straus, 1990

29. Correlates of Wife Abuse (Reproductive Health Survey 2000Philippine data) • 8.4% of 5,507 married men in our sample reported wife abuse. • Men who married young (24 yrs or younger), were more likely to beat their wife than men who married at an older age, if they themselves have experienced parental abuse (OR=10.78, 95%CI: 4.21-27.59).

30. Correlates of Wife Abuse(Reproductive Health Survey 2000Philippine data) • Men who had a history of violence were more likely to beat or hit their wife, than men who did not have a history of parental abuse, if married at 24 years of age or younger. (OR= 13.08, 95%CI: 1.47-116.14)

31. Correlates of Wife Abuse (Reproductive Health Survey 2000Philippine data) • Lower levels of education in women are associated with a higher likelihood of wife abuse. • The odds of wife abuse was 1.59 times (1.21-2.11) in men whose wives had reached high school while it was 1.61 times (1.23-2.13) in men whose wives had no education or had primary education.

32. Correlates of Wife Abuse (Reproductive Health Survey 2000Philippine data) • Men who object to their partner wanting to improve her education or visit her friends without them and who get their way during disagreements, are more likely to use physical violence.

33. Correlates of Wife Abuse (Reproductive Health Survey 2000Philippine data) • Men who, jointly with their wives or by themselves, usually decide on food matters, are also more likely to give in to wife abuse. • Men who predominantly handle the household budget are more likely as well to beat their wives, though the association is not significant.