Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1C 5S7, Canada.
Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Ghana.
Child Abuse Negl. 2018 May;79:384-394. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.02.027. Epub 2018 Mar 20.
Previous studies demonstrate the long term effects of childhood violence on future victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV). With a few exceptions from Asia, however, this literature is largely limited to North America and Europe. To date, contributions from sub-Saharan Africa remain scant. We began to fill this gap by applying the life course theory to retrospective data collected from 2289 women in Ghana. Specifically, we examined if women's childhood experiences of family violence were associated with their later victimization and/or their perpetration of IPV. We also explored the effect of the timing and continuity of family violence over the life course. Generally, we found that women with childhood experiences of violence were more likely to be victims and perpetrators of IPV than those with no such experiences. However, the effect and significance of the violence was more pronounced if it continued from early childhood (before age 15) to adulthood (after age 15). Violence experienced after age 15 was more significant than violence experienced before age 15, and women who perpetrated IPV were significantly more likely to be victimized themselves. To improve domestic violence interventions in Ghana, it is necessary to pay attention to victims' early childhood experiences.
先前的研究表明，儿童期经历的暴力会对未来亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）的受害和施暴产生长期影响。然而，除了亚洲的一些例外，这方面的文献主要局限于北美和欧洲。迄今为止，来自撒哈拉以南非洲的研究成果仍然很少。我们通过将生活历程理论应用于从加纳的 2289 名女性收集的回顾性数据，开始填补这一空白。具体来说，我们研究了女性在儿童时期经历的家庭暴力是否与她们后来遭受 IPV 侵害和/或施暴有关。我们还探讨了家庭暴力在生活历程中的时间和连续性的影响。总的来说，我们发现，有童年暴力经历的女性比没有这种经历的女性更容易成为 IPV 的受害者和施暴者。然而，如果暴力从儿童早期（15 岁之前）持续到成年期（15 岁之后），其影响和意义更为明显。15 岁以后经历的暴力比 15 岁以前经历的暴力更为显著，而实施 IPV 的女性自己遭受侵害的可能性也显著更高。为了改善加纳的家庭暴力干预措施，有必要关注受害者的童年早期经历。
