Childhood and Community Violence Exposure as Risks of Gender-Based Violence Among Women in the Dominican Republic

Barbara Zsembik , University of Florida
Julia Arroyo, University of Florida
Chuck Peek, University of Florida

Violence against women, gender-based violence (GBV), in the Dominican Republic has risen, commonly triggered by poverty and facilitated by social and community contexts in which women are expected to be subordinate, and general interpersonal violence regularly occurs. Violence against children co-occurs with violence against women, signaling mechanisms by which family violence is intergenerationally transmitted. Data for this research are drawn from both the country and bateyes 2013 DHS surveys. We evaluate whether report of multiple forms of GBV, including polyvictimization, in the past 12 months is associated with childhood and community violence exposure. We find that directly experiencing childhood sexual violence, directly experiencing physical harm from siblings or relatives, and witnessing her father beating her mother are strongly associated with a woman’s higher risk of all forms of GBV. We offer conclusions for future research in family violence studies.

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 Presented in Session 11. Health & Mortality 2