Spillover of Macro-Level Violence to Parental Physical Abuse of Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Background: The cultural spillover theory of violence posits that systemic contextual violence, represented by high rates of political conflict or crime, may extend to family violence, including physically abusive parenting behavior. However, empirical evidence demonstrating associations between violence in the macro context and parental physical abuse, particularly in under-resourced contexts like low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), remains scarce. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature by examining the following questions: Is exposure to macro-level violence (i.e., terrorism, homicide, intimate partner violence; IPV) and social norms endorsing violence against women and children associated with parental physical abuse, after accounting for confounders in family and societal contexts? Are the associations between macro-level violence and physical abuse mediated by social norms endorsing violence against women and children?

Methods: We used cross-sectional data from 435,131 households with a reference child aged 1 to 17 years (Mage = 7.16) across 43 countries from rounds 4 and 5 of the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. Country-level indicators measuring political and interpersonal violence, including rates of terrorism and political conflict, homicide, and women’s exposure to IPV were drawn from the United Nations Development Program Human Development data, Our World in Data, and the World Bank World Development Indicators. We used multilevel logistic regression models to estimate the degree to which country-level measures of violence were associated with two dichotomous outcomes, severe physical abuse (i.e., beat child up; hit/slapped on face/head/ears) and moderate physical abuse (i.e., shook child, spanked/hit/slapped on bottom with bare hand; hit/slapped on hand/arm/leg; hit with an object). We performed a mediation analysis to test the indirect association of terrorism and political conflict with physical abuse through attitudes justifying violence against women and children.

Results: Higher levels of endorsement of IPV towards women (OR = 1.024, p < .001) and attitudes supportive of the use of physical punishment with children (OR = 1.016, p < .05) were both associated with higher odds of severe physical abuse after controlling for country-level rates of terrorism and political conflict, homicide, IPV, and country-, household-, parent-, and child-level socio-demographic factors. The association of terrorism and political violence with severe physical abuse was mediated by norms that legitimize IPV (indirect b = .004, p < .001).

Conclusions and Implications: Prior research has found that favorable attitudes towards violence against women and children are strong predictors of parental physical abuse. Our findings demonstrate that one form of macro-level violence, terrorism and political violence, is associated with severe physical abuse, and this association is mediated by attitudes endorsing IPV. This finding represents an important extension of cultural spillover theory. Interventions aimed at reducing abusive parenting practices in LMICs may benefit from efforts to change or reduce such attitudes. To foster a safe and supportive child-rearing environment for families, these interventions should be responsive to trauma-informed approaches that recognize the effects of macro-level violence. Additionally, to prevent severe physical abuse perpetrated by parents, efforts to lower rates of violence in macro settings are necessary.