Abstract
This study aimed to describe potentially preventable factors in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and victimization among South African 8th grade students. Data were collected during a pilot evaluation of a classroom 8th grade curriculum on gender-based violence prevention in nine public schools in Cape Town through self-completed interviews with 549 8th grade students, 238 boys and 311 girls. Structural equation models (SEM) predicting IPV were constructed with variables a priori hypothesized to be associated. The majority of students (78.5 %) had had a partner in the past 3 months, and they reported high rates of IPV during that period (e.g., over 10 % of boys reported forcing a partner to have sex, and 39 % of girls reported physical IPV victimization). A trimmed version of the hypothesized SEM (CFI = .966; RMSEA = .051) indicated that disagreement with the ideology of male superiority and violence predicted lower risk of IPV (p < .001), whereas the frequency of using negative conflict resolution styles (e.g., walking off angrily, sending angry text messages, or refusing to talk to them) predicted high IPV risk (p < .001) and mediated the impact of heavy alcohol drinking on IPV (Sobel test, z = 3.16; p < .001). The model fit both girls and boys, but heavy drinking influenced negative styles of resolving conflict more strongly among girls than boys. Findings suggest that interventions to reduce IPV among South African adolescents should challenge attitudes supportive of male superiority and violence; encourage use of positive conflict resolution styles; and discourage heavy alcohol use among both boys and girls.
References
Abbey, A. (2011). Alcohol’s role in sexual violence perpetration: Theoretical explanations, existing evidence and future directions. Drug and Alcohol Review, 30, 481–489. doi:10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00296.x.
Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., Martin, L. J., Mathews, S., Vetten, L., & Lombard, C. (2009). Mortality of women from intimate partner violence in South Africa: A national epidemiological study. Violence and Victims, 24, 546–556. doi:10.1891/0886-6708.24.4.546.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411–423.
Beinart, W. (1992). Political and collective violence in Southern African historiography. Journal of Southern African Studies, 18, 455–486.
Blake, C. S., & Hamrin, V. (2007). Current approaches to the assessment and management of anger and aggression in youth: A review. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 20, 209–221. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6171.2007.00102.x.
Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York: Guilford.
Burt, M. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217–230.
Capaldi, D. M., Knoble, N. B., Shortt, J. W., & Kim, H. K. (2012). A systematic review of risk factors for intimate partner violence. Partner Abuse, 3, 231–280. doi:10.1891/1946-6560.3.2.231.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). Physical dating violence among high school students—United States, 2003. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 55, 532–535.
Clements, K., & Schumacher, J. A. (2010). Perceptual biases in social cognition as potential moderators of the relationship between alcohol and intimate partner violence: A review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 15, 357–368. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2010.06.004.
Flewelling, R. L., Paschall, M. J., & Ringwalt, C. (2004). The Epidemiology of Underage Drinking in the United States: An Overview Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
Flisher, A. J., Myer, L., Merais, A., Lombard, C., & Reddy, P. (2007). Prevalence and correlates of partner violence among South African adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 619–627. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01711.x.
Flisher, A. J., Ziervogel, C. F., Chalton, D. O., & Robertson, B. A. (1993). Risk-taking behaviour of Cape Peninsula high-school students. Part I. Introduction and methods. South African Medical Journal, 83, 469–473.
Foran, H. M., & O’Leary, K. D. (2008). Alcohol and intimate partner violence: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 1222–1234. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2008.05.001.
Foshee, V. A., Linder, G. F., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A., Arriaga, X. B., Heath, J. L., & Bangdiwala, S. (1996). The Safe Dates project: Theoretical basis, evaluation design, and selected baseline findings. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12, 39–47.
Gass, J. D., Stein, D. J., Williams, D. R., & Seedat, S. (2011). Gender differences in risk for intimate partner violence among South African adults. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 26, 2764–2789. doi:10.1177/0886260510390960.
Gilbert, L. (1996). Urban violence and health—South Africa 1995. Social Science & Medicine, 43, 873–886. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(96)00131-1.
Hahn, R., Fuqua-Whitley, D., Wethington, H., Lowy, J., Liberman, A., Crosby, A., & Dahlberg, L. (2007). The effectiveness of universal school-based programs for the prevention of violent and aggressive behavior: a report on recommendations of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. MMWR Recommendations and Reports: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 56, 1–12.
Heise, L. L. (1998). Violence against women: An integrated, ecological framework. Violence Against Women, 4, 262–290. doi:10.1177/1077801298004003002.
Jewkes, R. (2002). Intimate partner violence: Causes and prevention. Lancet, 359, 1423–1429. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)08357-5.
Jewkes, R., & Abrahams, N. (2002). The epidemiology of rape and sexual coercion in South Africa: An overview. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 1231–1244. doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00242-8.
Jewkes, R., Levin, J., & Penn-Kekana, L. (2002). Risk factors for domestic violence: Findings from a South African cross-sectional study. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 1603–1617. doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00294-5.
Jewkes, R., & Morrell, R. (2010). Gender and sexuality: Emerging perspectives from the heterosexual epidemic in South Africa and implications for HIV risk and prevention. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 13, 6. doi:10.1186/1758-2652-13-6.
Jewkes, R., Nduna, M., Levin, J., Jama, N., Dunkle, K., Khuzwayo, N., & Duvvury, N. (2006). A cluster randomized-controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of Stepping Stones in preventing HIV infections and promoting safer sexual behaviour amongst youth in the rural Eastern Cape, South Africa: Trial design, methods and baseline findings. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 11, 3–16. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3156.2005.01530.x.
Jewkes, R. K., Dunkle, K., Nduna, M., & Shai, N. (2010). Intimate partner violence, relationship power inequity, and incidence of HIV infection in young women in South Africa: A cohort study. Lancet, 376, 41–48. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60548-x.
Karnell, A. P., Cupp, P. K., Zimmerman, R. S., Feist-Price, S., & Bennie, T. (2006). Efficacy of an American alcohol and HIV prevention curriculum adapted for use in South Africa: Results of a pilot study in five township schools. AIDS Education and Prevention, 18, 295–310. doi:10.1521/aeap.2006.18.4.295.
Leadley, K., Clark, C. L., & Caetano, R. (2000). Couples’ drinking patterns, intimate partner violence, and alcohol-related partnership problems. Journal of Substance Abuse, 11, 253–263. doi:10.1016/s0899-3289(00)00025-0.
Machisa, M., Jewkes, R., Morna, C. L., & Rama, K. E. (2011). The War at Home - GBV Indicators Project. Retrieved from http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/the-war-at-home---gbv-indicators-project-2011-08-16.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K.-T., Balla, J. R., & Grayson, D. (1998). Is more ever too much? The number of indicators per factor in confirmatory factor analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 33, 181–220.
Norman, R., Schneider, M., Bradshaw, D., Jewkes, R., Abrahams, N., Matzopoulos, R., & Vos, T. (2010). Interpersonal violence: An important risk factor for disease and injury in South Africa. Population Health Metrics, 8, 32. doi:10.1186/1478-7954-8-32.
Pulerwitz, J., Barker, G. (2008). Measuring attitudes toward gender norms among young men in Brazil ‐ Development and psychometric evaluation of the GEM Scale. Men and Masculinities, 10, 322–338.
Ramsoomar, L., & Morojele, N. K. (2012). Trends in alcohol prevalence, age of initiation and association with alcohol-related harm among South African youth: Implications for policy. South African Medical Journal, 102, 609–612.
Reddy, S. P., James, S., Sewpaul, R., Koopman, F., Funani, N. I., Sifunda, S., & Omardien, R. G. (2010). Umthente Uhlaba Usamila—The South African Youth Risk Behaviour Survey 2008. Cape Town, South Africa: South African Medical Research Council.
Seedat, M., Van Niekerk, A., Jewkes, R., Suffla, S., & Ratele, K. (2009). Violence and injuries in South Africa: Prioritising an agenda for prevention. Lancet, 374, 1011–1022. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(09)60948-x.
Seebregts, C. J., Zwarenstein, M., Mathews, C., Fairall, L., Flisher, A. J., Seebregts, C., Mukoma, W., & Klepp, K. I. (2009). Handheld computers for survey and trial data collection in resource-poor settings: Development and evaluation of PDACT, a Palm Pilot interviewing system. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 11, 721–731. doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2008.10.006.
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhardt (Ed.), Sociological Methodology (pp. 290–312). Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association.
Steiger, J. H. (1990). Structural model equation and modification: An interval estimation approach. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25, 173–180.
Straus, M. A. (1980). Social stress and marital violence in a national sample of American families. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 347, 229–250.
Thompson, E., Pleck, J. H., Ferrera, D. L. (1992). Men and masculinities: scales for masculinity ideology and masculinity‐related constructs. Sex roles, 27, 573–607.
Tucker, L. R., & Lewis, C. (1973). A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 38, 1–10.
UNICEF. (2003). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/southafrica_statistics.html.
WHO. (2000). WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence: Core Questionnaire and WHO Instrument—Version 9. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
WHO. (2010). Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: Taking action and generating evidence. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
Wilson, S. J., & Lipsey, M. W. (2007). School-based interventions for aggressive and disruptive behavior—update of a meta-analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33, S130–S143. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2007.04.011.
Wubs, A. G., Aaro, L. E., Flisher, A. J., Bastien, S., Onya, H. E., Kaaya, S., & Mathews, C. (2009). Dating violence among school students in Tanzania and South Africa: Prevalence and socio-demographic variations. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 37, 75–86. doi:10.1177/1403494808091343.
Zhu, B., Walter, S., Rosenbaum, P., Russell, D., & Raina, P. (2006). Structural equation and log-linear modeling: A comparison of methods in the analysis of a study on caregivers’ health. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 6, 49.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the US National Institute of Mental Health (R34MH081792). The authors also wish to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Alan J. Flisher and Dr. Rick Zimmerman to this project. Dr. Zimmerman was originally the principal investigator on the NIH grant that funded this research. Dr. Flisher headed the research team in Cape Town before his untimely death in 2010. He is greatly missed.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Russell, M., Cupp, P.K., Jewkes, R.K. et al. Intimate Partner Violence Among Adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa. Prev Sci 15, 283–295 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-013-0405-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-013-0405-7