The Multi-Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children

The document is an on-going, four-country study in Italy, Peru, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe, led by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and its academic partner the University of Edinburgh. Over the past 10 years, studies have conclusively established that physical, sexual and emotional violence affecting children is prevalent in all societies. The research and data has been powerful: discourse among policy makers is shifting from “this does not happen here” to “what is driving this?” and “how can we address it?”. The Study stands at the intersection of evidence, policy and practice. The results contribute to a better understanding of the greatest threats to children and the contexts in which these threats occur

Research that Drives Change : Conceptualizing and Conducting Nationally Led Violence Prevention Research. Synthesis Report of the “Multi-Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children” in Italy, Peru, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe

Globally, studies have demonstrated that children in every society are affected by physical, sexual and emotional violence. The drive to both quantify and qualify violence through data and research has been powerful: discourse among policy makers is shifting from “this does not happen here” to “what is driving this?” and “how can we address it?” To help answer these questions, the MultiCountry Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children – conducted in Italy, Viet Nam, Peru and Zimbabwe – sought to disentangle the complex and often interrelated underlying causes of violence affecting children (VAC) in these four countries. Led by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti with its academic partner, the University of Edinburgh, the Study was conducted by national research teams comprised of government, practitioners and academic researchers in each of the four countries. Drawing on human-centred principles, the Study used an iterative approach which put national ownership and co-creation at its core. Government partners were actively engaged as co-researchers and all data analysis was conducted in-country by government statisticians. Facilitating and prioritizing national meaningmaking through dialogue and joint analysis and synthesis of findings was also a key part of the Study design. Each national team used a common process involving three separate components, all of which build on existing data and research: a systematic literature review of academic and ‘grey’ literature (such as research reports) including both quality quantitative and qualitative research, secondary analyses of nationally representative data sets and an initial mapping of the interventions landscape. Analysed together, these sources of information helped build initial hypotheses around what drives violence in each country. Two key frameworks were applied to the analysis in this Study: 1) a version of the socio-ecological model, which helps to understand the dynamic relationships between factors at the micro-, mesoand macro-levels, and 2) an age and gender framework, which recognizes that a child’s vulnerability and ability to protect herself from violence changes over time with her evolving capacities. Through these lenses, common themes emerged across contexts. Guided by findings from the four countries highlighting the dynamic and constantly changing and/or overlapping domains that shape violence in children’s lives, this Study moved beyond understanding the risk and protective factors for violence affecting children, which are often measured at the individual, interpersonal and community level. In doing so, it demonstrated how patterns of interpersonal violence are intimately connected to larger structural and institutional factors—or the drivers of violence. The structural drivers of violence identified across the four country sites, representing high (Italy), upper middle (Peru), lower middle (Viet Nam) and low income (Zimbabwe) settings, include: rapid socio-economic transformations accompanied by economic growth but also instability; poverty; migration; and gender inequality. The institutional drivers of violence, such as legal structures, ineffective child protection systems, weak school governance and harmful social and cultural norms, often serve to reinforce children’s vulnerabilities. Drivers are rarely isolated factors and tend to work in potent combination with other factors within a single level as well as between levels of the social ecology that shapes children’s lives. While some drivers can lead to positive change for children, in this study, these factors or combinations of factors are most often invisible forms of harm in and of themselves. While VAC is present in every country, the analyses also show how violence conspires unevenly to create and maintain inequalities between and within countries. The institutions and communities upon which children and their families depend are changing social entities with many interdependent parts. The type of violence in any one or multiple settings may vary depending on a variety of risk or protective factors and/or by age and gender. One of the most important findings is that violence is a fluid and shifting phenomenon in children’s lives as they move between the places where they live, play, sleep and learn. Identifying and addressing unequal power dynamics – wherever they may occur in the home, school or community – is of central importance to effective violence prevention. The research also shows how behaviours around violence are passed through generations, suggesting that the social tolerance of these behaviours is learned in childhood. Data across countries also shows how violence is intimately connected to how relationships are structured and defined by power dynamics within and among families, peers and communities. These findings, along with learning from the study process, led to the development of a new childcentred and integrated framework, which proposes a process by which interdisciplinary coalitions of researchers, practitioners and policymakers can understand violence affecting children and what can be done to prevent it. Using data to drive change, our proposed Child-Centred and Integrated Framework for Violence Prevention serves to situate national findings according to a child’s social ecology, making clear how institutional and structural drivers and risk/protective factors together shape the many risks and opportunities of childhood around the world

Growing Up in Violent Contexts: Differential Effects of Community, Family, and School Violence on Child Adjustment

Although different than in war-torn areas, violence affects children even in the most economically developed countries. In this chapter we review the empirical evidence supporting the detrimental effects of early violence exposure on a wide range of developmental outcomes. We also provide an examination of mechanisms linking violence exposure to negative developmental outcomes, as well as the predisposing and precipitating factors that intervene in these complex relationships. We conclude that the problem of exposure to violence in children is often underestimated and discuss the implications for child welfare policy and preventive interventions

Child protection policy: Understanding drivers of violence affecting children in Côte d’Ivoire

Motivation: Since the campaign launched by UNICEF in 2013, the momentum for measuring violence has grown significantly. Such studies generally measure risk and protective factors at the individual and interpersonal levels, but often overlook the critical institutional and structural drivers of violence. Purpose: This article demonstrates how socioeconomic transformations, including “modern” forms of violence fuelled by social fragmentation, armed conflict and urbanization, are important conditions favouring violence against children. Approach and methods: The article offers a systematic literature review following protocols in the original Multi-Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children, an approach first proposed by the UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti. Findings: We underline two main changes among the drivers of violence in Côte d’Ivoire: economic crisis and urbanization, which combine to foster a climate of violence; and politico-military crisis, which also creates a fertile ground for violence and its acceptance. Policy implications: Child protection policy in Côte d’Ivoire is out of step with the evolution of the social context. It is mainly oriented towards “traditional” practices, which contrast with newer forms of violence developed over the past 30 years. The article shows that the country’s child protection policy does not take these changes sufficiently into account, and argues for policy change. © The Authors 2021. Development Policy Review © 2021 Overseas Development Institut