Intimate Partner Violence Outcomes in the Wake of Armed Conflict

Elizabeth Boyle , University of Minnesota
Corey Culver
Jordan Boudreaux, University of Minnesota

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has serious health consequences, both for immediate victims and their children. Our research considers whether exposure to battles at any level, not only at the level of all-out war, is a risk factor for IPV and, if so, whether this relationship holds broadly across a range of countries. We hypothesize that even with relatively low levels of conflict, exposure to local conflict events will lead to an increase in intimate partner violence. We consider this question across five sub-Saharan African countries during periods when they experienced localized armed battles, but not civil or international wars. Using multilevel regression analysis with data from IPUMS DHS, we find that exposure to any level of battles is associated with a 15% increase in the odds of IPV (OR=1.146, p < 0.05) in our five countries.

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 Presented in Session 201. Exposure to Collective Violence/Conflict and Child/Youth Well-being: International Perspectives