Interpersonal Violence in Asia: Exploring Ecological Risk Factors in Six Regions

Background and purpose: Interpersonal violence is an umbrella term encompassing violence inflicted within relationships, including intimate partner violence [IPV], child abuse, and violence against others. In Asia, rates of violence are increasing; the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported an average homicide rate in Asia of 2.3 deaths per 100,000 people per year, with significant regional disparities. However, studies on interpersonal violence limits in a long-term, continental-scale research, considering regional differences across the Asia region. Therefore, guided by the ecological model, this study examines various risk factors (i.e., low life satisfaction, economic hardship, neighborhood disadvantage, patriarchal values, and religiosity) associated with the justification of interpersonal violence (i.e., IPV, child abuse, violence against others) in five regions in Asia (i.e., East, West, Central, South, and Southeast).

Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis using the World Values Survey (WVS). This analysis uses a subset of 33,749 respondents in Asia. To examine the risk factors associated with three types of interpersonal violence, this study used multigroup multiple regression model with robust maximum likelihood estimation using Mplus ver. 8.

Results: In the entire sample, the findings showed that the justifiability of IPV against wife was positively associated with low life satisfaction (β = 0.021, p < 0.001); economic hardship (β = 0.031, p < 0.001); neighborhood disadvantage (β = 0.064, p < 0.001); and patriarchal values (β = 0.019, p < 0.001), while it was negatively associated with religiosity (β = -0.022, p < 0.001). The justifiability of child abuse was positively associated with low life satisfaction (β = 0.022, p < 0.01); neighborhood disadvantage (β = 0.087, p < 0.001); and patriarchal values (β = 0.019, p < 0.05); while it was negatively associated with economic hardship (β = -0.009, p < 0.01); and religiosity (β = -0.014, p < 0.01). Furthermore, the justifiability of violence against others was positively associated with economic hardship (β = 0.039, p < 0.001); and neighborhood disadvantage (β = 0.071, p < 0.001), while it was negatively associated with religiosity (β = -0.093, p < 0.001). The multigroup analysis presented varying findings, which indicated that each region has different risk factors associated with each type of interpersonal violence.

Conclusions and Implications: Despite some commonly shared histories, each region in Asia has unique cultural norms and social systems. The levels of justification for interpersonal violence varied across Asia, with Southeast Asia presenting the highest rates of justification for IPV against wives and violence against others, while West Asia presents the highest rates of justification for child abuse. Risk factors associated with each type of interpersonal violence varied across regions. Considering the high rates of interpersonal violence in Asia, understanding the risk factors associated with justifying specific types of interpersonal violence can provide an initial clue to prevent violence in Asia. Further, as many Asians living in the US are still influenced by the culture, religion, norms of the place of origin, this study informs social workers helping Asians from various background.