Marriage as a protective factor against intimate partner violence suffered by women. Exploring mechanisms

Research has consistently found that married women experienced less intimate partner violence (IPV) than cohabiting ones. However, most existing studies focus on the incidence of IPV as a binary indicator, while the severity of that exposure or the different types of violence has been largely ignore...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Cid, Alejandro, Leguisamo, Mariana
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2022
Country:Uruguay
Institution:Universidad de Montevideo
Repository:REDUM
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:redum.um.edu.uy:20.500.12806/1395
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12806/1395
https://doi.org/10.1177/15404153221137343
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Intimate partner violence
Domestic violence
Marriage
Cohabitation
Latin America
Women
Description
Summary:Research has consistently found that married women experienced less intimate partner violence (IPV) than cohabiting ones. However, most existing studies focus on the incidence of IPV as a binary indicator, while the severity of that exposure or the different types of violence has been largely ignored. This article begins to address these issues with a multivariate approach, for some Latin American countries. The study reports that married women suffered less violence than cohabiting women for each singular type of violence, even after controlling by education, age, locality, wealth, and personal violence history. This article proposes a novel mechanism that helps to explain these findings: marriage would provide a framework that fosters investment in the quality of the couple's relationship, thus preventing IPV. The estimates on the couple's investments support these predictions.