Rachel Jewkes1,2,3, Esme Jordaan4, Henri Myrttinen5, Andrew Gibbs1,6. 1. Gender & Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa. 2. Office of the Executive Scientist, South African Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa. 3. School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. 4. Biostatistics Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa. 5. Gender Associations International Consulting, Berlin, Germany. 6. Centre for Rural Health, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Multiple masculinities have been explicated through latent class analysis (LCA) in South Africa, and a question arises as to whether men can be similarly grouped by their behaviour in very different cultural contexts, and whether an analysis would point to similar origins to men's use of violence against women. The UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific's data set enabled this question to be explored. METHODS: In nine sites in six countries, data were collected from one man (18-49 years) interviewed in each of a random sample of households. Using LCA, we categorised men based on their probability of having engaged in 10 acts of violence against women or other illegal or sexually risky behaviour. We present multinomial logistic regression models of factors associated with class membership and associated childhood and trauma experiences. RESULTS: The LCA model with 5 classes fitted best: the largest class (59.5% of men) had the lowest probabilities of engagement in the class-defining acts; men in the second (21.2%) were otherwise law abiding and not sexually risky, but very violent towards partners; men in the third (7.9%) had the highest probability of engagement in all violent and illegal behaviour; men in the fourth (7.8%) demonstrated behaviour at the nexus of sex and power including rape and transacted sex; and men in the fifth (3.6%), engaged in anti-social behaviour, but were less violent towards women and sexually risky. Assignment to more violent classes was associated with poverty, substance abuse and depression, and more gender inequitable attitudes and practices. Child abuse, neglect and bullying were associated with being in the more violent classes. Neither men's domestic practices nor their fathers' presence in their childhood were associated with class. CONCLUSIONS: Closely paralleling the South African findings, we have highlighted the childhood origins of men's violent and anti-social behaviour, as well as the interrelationships with men's mental health, poverty and misogyny, showing that these (intersectional) developmental processes transcend culture and setting. We need to prevent children's exposure to violence, and in gender transformative work with men, recognise and address past and present psychological distress stemming from trauma experience.
BACKGROUND: Multiple masculinities have been explicated through latent class analysis (LCA) in South Africa, and a question arises as to whether men can be similarly grouped by their behaviour in very different cultural contexts, and whether an analysis would point to similar origins to men's use of violence against women. The UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific's data set enabled this question to be explored. METHODS: In nine sites in six countries, data were collected from one man (18-49 years) interviewed in each of a random sample of households. Using LCA, we categorised men based on their probability of having engaged in 10 acts of violence against women or other illegal or sexually risky behaviour. We present multinomial logistic regression models of factors associated with class membership and associated childhood and trauma experiences. RESULTS: The LCA model with 5 classes fitted best: the largest class (59.5% of men) had the lowest probabilities of engagement in the class-defining acts; men in the second (21.2%) were otherwise law abiding and not sexually risky, but very violent towards partners; men in the third (7.9%) had the highest probability of engagement in all violent and illegal behaviour; men in the fourth (7.8%) demonstrated behaviour at the nexus of sex and power including rape and transacted sex; and men in the fifth (3.6%), engaged in anti-social behaviour, but were less violent towards women and sexually risky. Assignment to more violent classes was associated with poverty, substance abuse and depression, and more gender inequitable attitudes and practices. Child abuse, neglect and bullying were associated with being in the more violent classes. Neither men's domestic practices nor their fathers' presence in their childhood were associated with class. CONCLUSIONS: Closely paralleling the South African findings, we have highlighted the childhood origins of men's violent and anti-social behaviour, as well as the interrelationships with men's mental health, poverty and misogyny, showing that these (intersectional) developmental processes transcend culture and setting. We need to prevent children's exposure to violence, and in gender transformative work with men, recognise and address past and present psychological distress stemming from trauma experience.
Authors: Susan P Walker; Theodore D Wachs; Sally Grantham-McGregor; Maureen M Black; Charles A Nelson; Sandra L Huffman; Helen Baker-Henningham; Susan M Chang; Jena D Hamadani; Betsy Lozoff; Julie M Meeks Gardner; Christine A Powell; Atif Rahman; Linda Richter Journal: Lancet Date: 2011-09-22 Impact factor: 79.321