Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 4:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Intimate Partner Violence

Community-Based Judgments about the Need for Child Protection in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence

Purpose: To assess and examine community-based judgments about the involvement of child protection in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV). Methods: A random-digit-dial survey was conducted with over-sampling for specific ethnic groups (n=3,679 respondents); the final sample was composed of roughly equal numbers of African Americans, Hispanics, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, other Asian Americans (not of Korean or Vietnamese descent), and Whites. A fractional factorial vignette design was used to assess normative judgments about the involvement of child protection in cases of IPV and to examine the influence of IPV contextual factors (i.e., victim, perpetrator, and situational characteristics) on these judgments. Each subject responded to two vignettes that mentioned that there was a “child in the other room” while the IPV was occurring (n=7,358 vignettes). Frequencies, bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted. Regression equations controlled for all vignette variables and respondent characteristics simultaneously and accounted for non-independence of the vignettes. Results: In 70% of the cases, respondents thought a social worker should be called. Of the nine types of abuse examined, support for involving child protection was lowest when the IPV was psychological in nature (62-63%), higher when the abuse involved threats, coercion, and minor physical abuse (68-72%), and highest when the IPV involved rape or serious physical abuse (76-81%). The odds of supporting social work intervention for children were also higher when the IPV occurred between gay men, involved weapons, or had occurred multiple times. Respondent gender and ethnicity were also associated with judgments as men (vs. women) and Vietnamese Americans (vs. whites) had lower odds of thinking social workers should be called. Implications and conclusions: Although most would agree, and many empirical studies support, that exposure to domestic violence is not good for children, the best way to intervene in these cases is not clear. Currently there is a lack of consensus among the states and within the social work profession with regard to this issue. This study’s findings help to illuminate the injunctive norms of a diverse population regarding this issue, demonstrating that support for involving child protection in IPV cases is high, and increases with severity of the abuse, involvement of weapons, and multiple incidents. Knowledge of these community-based norms can provide support for efforts to implement state-level policy change and allocate funding for intervention and services for children exposed to IPV.

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