NEGOTIATING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE, ETHNICITY

1
NEGOTIATING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE, ETHNICITY
TRADITIONAL SEX ROLES IN INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LATINO AND
NON-LATINO COLLEGE STUDENTS HEALTH BELIEFS

• Presentation by
• Grace Gámez

Tough Guise
2
Introduction

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a growing
  concern in public health
• More prevalent than we recognize
• Serious public health consequences

3
CDC Definition of IPV

• United States Center for Disease Control (CDC)
  defines IPV as physical, sexual, or psychological
  harm inflicted by a current or former partner or
  spouse.
• These behaviors may include
• humiliation
• controlling what the victim can and cannot do
• withholding information from the victim
• deliberately making the victim feel diminished or
  embarrassed
• isolating the victim from friends and family
• denying the victim access to money or other basic
  resources
• Previous acts of sexual or physical violence, or
  threats of sexual or physical violence, are also
  considered psychological and emotional violence

4
Ethnicity IPV

• Research assessing differences by ethnicity has
  produced conflicting results
• Latinos have lower levels of IPV in comparison to
  African Americans and Non-Latino whites (Benson
  et al., Fagan et al., Sorenson et al.)
• Latinos are more violent than Non-Latino whites
  (Sorenson Telles, Straus Smith)
• The third body of literature finds no differences
  in IPV between Latinos and Non-Latino whites
  (Kaufman et al., White Koss)

5
This Study

• Assess divergence in conceptualization of subtle
  components of violence
• Explore how Latinos define emotional and
  psychological violence in comparison to
  non-Latino Whites
• Address role of ethnicity and traditional sex
  roles

6
Literature Review

• The literature was organized into four broadly
  defined categories
• History and culture
• Latinas and IPV
• Latino men and IPV
• College students and IPV

7
History Culture Preconquest Nahua Gender
Ideology (A.D.12501521)

• Perceived gender as neither immutable nor stable
• Nahua societies organized around duality
• Gender duality refers to simultaneity of
  containing male and female aspects
• The best-known example is the creator Ometeotl,
  or God Two, who had a male and a female aspect
• The male aspect was addressed as Ometecuhtli,
  Two Lord
• The female as Omecihuatl, Two Woman
• In Nahua painted books/traditions, dual-gendered
  energy appear as two distinctly gendered beings

8
Omecihuatl Two Woman Ometecuhtli, Two Lord
9
Codex Borbonicus, fol. 21. Oxomoco and Cipactonal
Divining (Nowotny1974)

• Facing each other, represented equal in size
• Respective genders indicated by the differences
  in their costumes
• Among the Nahua, only men were supposed to sit
  with their knees up, and only women knelt in
  their poses
• Bilateral symmetry and gender-appropriate poses
  and dress characterized the harmonious and
  interdependent relationship of man woman
• Throughout Mesoamerica, this dualism represented
  the hallmark of social maturity, formed the
  basis of the socioeconomic order
• Gender dualism, was designed to benefit the
  family as a whole, thus represented the social
  ideal

10
Founding Traditions Florentino, Matritense del
Real Palacio del Real Academia codices

• Speak of moderation preparation for men
• Before you know woman you must grow and be a
  complete man, then you will be ready for
  marriage
• The mature man is a heart solid as a rock, is a
  wise faceis able and understanding.
• The fatheris careful of things he is
  compassionate, he is concerned, he is support, he
  protects with his hands he is the torch that
  does not smoke
• Torch that does not smoke, speaks to honesty
  and consistency
• Four values
• Palabra- keeping to your word
• Cariño- love
• Dignidad- dignity
• Respeto- respect
• So important and complex were these instructions
  that 14 volumes are devoted to these teachings in
  the Florentine Codex

11
History Culture Impact of Colonization on
Gender Roles

• Several authors trace changes in gender roles
  back to colonization where egalitarian societies
  transformed into communities based on patriarchy
  (Rondon, Batalla, Kasturigan)
• Rondon (2003), theorizes that violence against
  women is tolerated because of the patriarchal
  organization of society.
• Argues that the Latino culture and religion
  require that women adopt positions of passivity
  and dependence which lends itself to situations
  of violence.

12
Latinas IPV

• Research suggests that Latinas in comparison to
  non-Latino whites are
• More accepting/tolerant of violence, specifically
  Mexican American women
• Identifying violence as such dependent on
  frequency
• Return to abusers more frequently
• Two areas of Latino cultural identity identified
  are the traditional sex roles of machismo and
  marianismo
• Mexican American women less inclined to identify
  emotional violence as spousal abuse
• Torres 1987,1991

13
Latinas Help Seeking Behaviors

• Help seeking behaviors influenced by cultural
  factors of gender role expectations, and
  famialism.
• Help seeking behaviors impacted by
• immigrant status
• financial dependency on the abuser
• Deterrent/Motivating factor welfare of the
  children
• Acevedo, 2000

14
College Students IPV

• Renison and Welchans (2000) found that the rates
  of non-lethal cases of IPV was highest among the
  20-24 age group, followed by 16-19 year olds, and
  then the 25-34 age group

15
College Students IPV Mexican American
ethnicity acculturation

• Ramirez (2007) found that
• Mexican American ethnicity, acculturation
  had no relation to rates of intimate partner
  violence
• The rates of IPV between Mexican Americans and
  non-Mexican Whites did not differ

16
College Students IPV Mexican American women

• Coker et. al. (2008) found that
• Partner violence was prevalent among Mexican
  American college women, experienced many forms of
  violence
• Only 25 of women who experienced violence in
  their relationship defined it as such
• Interventions must address perceptions of violence

17
College Students IPV

• Positive correlation between alcohol consumption
  and aggressive/violent
• Relationship between alcohol and IPV are more
  pronounced for men than for women

18
College Students IPV Straus (2008)

• Murray Straus (2008) found that dominance on the
  part of either partner is associated with
  increased violence in the relationship.
• This study indicates that among a college sample,
  IPV is parallel for men and women.

19
Gaps in the Research

• What is not significantly highlighted in the
  research on IPV and with the Latino demographic
  is how Latinos construct how they perceive IPV,
  specifically their opinions on emotional
  violence.
• The literature on this topic among the Latino
  college demographic is severely limited.
  Additionally, what is not adequately linked to
  the topic is how cultural scripts mediate this
  relationship.

20
My Research

• The purpose of this investigation is to
• explore what college Latinos define as emotional
  and psychological violence within the context of
  intimate relationships in comparison to
  Non-Latino Whites.
• address the role ethnicity and traditional sex
  roles play in ones perceptions of emotional and
  psychological violence.
• advance current research on the topic of IPV

21
Methodology

• Background
• In constructing the questions asked of study
  participants the following indicators outlined by
  the CDC definition of emotional violence were
  taken into consideration
• Humiliation
• Controlling movement of victim
• Withholding information
• Diminishing/embarrassing the victim
• Isolation
• Denying access to money
• Denying access to resources
• Sexual violence
• Physical violence
• Threats of sexual, physical violence

22
Hypotheses

• From the literature I derived two hypotheses
• H1 Latinos conceptualize violence differently
  than non-Latino Whites, they do not identify
  emotional violence as violence.
• H2 Latinos are more traditional than
  non-Latino Whites and will score higher on the
  Traditional Sex Role Scale.

23
Study Design Sampling Procedures

• The sample was comprised of male and female
  Latino and non-Latino White undergraduate
  students (N151)
• Asian Americans, African Americans/Blacks,
  American Indians/Native Americans were omitted
  from the data analysis for two reasons
• research focused on examining differences between
  Latino and non-Latino White populations
• sample size for the other racial ethnic groups
  was too small to make any substantial
  comparisons.

24
Study Focus

• The study had two main foci
• The first purpose of this study was to gather
  information on how Latinos define emotional and
  psychological violence in the context of intimate
  relationships.
• The second purpose of this study was to examine
  the correlation of said perceptions with
  ethnicity and traditional sex roles.

25
Materials

• The questionnaire 107 items.
• Twelve items covered participant demographics
• 45 questions evaluated participants attitudes
  towards IPV.
• These questions were based in part on the
  Conflict Tactic Scales (CTS, CTS2)
• Of the 45 questions, 7 were pulled out to create
  the Perceived Violence Scale

26
Mirandé Sex Role Inventory (MSRI)

• The final 50 questions are the Mirandé Sex Role
  Inventory Scale (MSRI)
• 17 were used to comprise a Traditional Sex Role
  Scale

27
Dependent Variables

• Seven hypothetical situations were posited
• The participant assessed whether or not they
  perceived the situation to be a form of violent
  behavior.
• Responses of Yes, this is a form of violence
  were coded 1 and No, this is not a form of
  violence responses were coded 0 for all
  questions/situations described. Responses of
  not sure were coded as missing

28
Perceived Violence Scale

• Dependent Variables
• If a person infected their partner with an STD do
  you believe this would constitute a form of
  violent behavior?
• If a person refused to use contraceptives or for
  their partner to use contraceptives, would this
  constitute a form violent behavior?
• If a person isolated their partner from their
  family/friends, would this constitute a form of
  violent behavior?
• If a person withheld or took their partners
  money would this constitute a form of violent
  behavior?
• If a person became upset if meals or housework
  was not done according to his/her liking, or
  within a certain time frame, would this
  constitute a form of violent behavior?
• If a person did not allow their partner access to
  the bank account (s), but would withdraw money
  for their partner as needed, would this
  constitute a form of violent behavior?
• If a person restricted where and when their
  partner went somewhere through controlling access
  to transportation, would this constitute a form
  of violent behavior?

29
Independent Variables

• Latino
• Gender
• Traditional Sex Role Scale
• Perceived Victim of Relationship Violence

30
Descriptive Statistics
31
Cross Tabs

• Cross tabulations were conducted to demonstrate
  the distribution between the DVs IVs
• For example
• If a person infected their partner with an
  STD do you believe this would constitute a form
  of violent behavior?

32
Chi Squares

• Chi square analysis was performed to test the
  statistical significance of the cross tabs

33
Results

• Statistically significant/substantive difference
• Gender
• Traditional Sex Role Score
• Previous Victimization

34
Question 30

• If a person infected their partner with an STD do
  you believe this would constitute a form of
  violent behavior?
• Previous victimization Having a history of
  victimization regardless of gender or race,
  increased the likelihood of identifying the
  scenario as violence (N 91, p 0.055)

35
Question 42

• If a person withheld or took their partners
  money would this constitute a form of violent
  behavior?
• Gender Females were more likely than males to
  perceive this scenario as violence (N 130 p
  0.012)

36
Question 45

• If a person became upset if meals or housework
  was not done according to his/her liking, or
  within a certain time frame, would this
  constitute a form of violent behavior?
• Gender Females were more likely than males to
  perceive this scenario as violence
• not statistically significant, but it is
  substantive (N 119 p 0.081)

37
Question 47

• If a person restricted where and when their
  partner went somewhere through controlling access
  to transportation, would this constitute a form
  of violent behavior?
• Traditional Sex Role score There appears to be a
  negative correlation between Q47 and Traditional
  Sex Role. This suggests that the more traditional
  one identified the less likely to perceive
  scenario as violence (N 123 r -0.254)
• Gender Females were more likely to state that
  this was violence (N 123 p 0.013)

38
Traditional Sex Role Score

• Important to note
• Latino students in this sample were not more or
  less traditional than non-Latino White students
  (did not have higher score on Traditional Sex
  Role scale)
• However, females were less traditional than males
  in the sample (p 0.018)

39
Summary of Findings

• Results demonstrate
• Not a significant difference between Latino and
  non-Latino White college students in terms of how
  they perceive emotional/psychological violence.
• Positive correlation for identifying or not
  identifying instances of emotional violence as
  such based on
• Gender,
• Traditional Sex Role Score
• Previous Victimization

40
Conclusions

• The present results suggest that for college
  students, perceptions of violence are not
  mediated by ethnicity but rather are influenced
  by gender, and previous experience with violence.
  
• Additionally, students with a high orientation
  towards traditional sex roles were less likely to
  perceive situations of control, as assessed
  through question 47, as violence.
• Therefore, future studies among this population
  may look at gender and previous exposure to
  violence as important factors in the discussion
  of IPV among this population.