Patterns of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Subsequent Risk of Interpersonal Violence Perpetration Among Men in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A Mixed Methods Study

Background: Childhood exposure to adversity, including abuse and neglect, is consistently found to be a predictor of perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) and peer violence (PV) in adulthood. This mixed-methods study examines distinct patterns of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their relationship to IPV and PV in adulthood among high-risk men in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods: I conducted two studies using quantitative and qualitative data from an HIV and IPV prevention trial in Dar es Salaam. In the first study, I used latent class analysis to identify respondents with similar patterns of ACEs. The analysis was conducted with a sample of 987 men. In the second study, I collected qualitative in-depth interviews with a sub-sample of 24 men who, based on the quantitative study, were at a high risk of perpetrating IPV or PV. The purpose of the qualitative analysis was to explore the pathways between exposure to ACEs and perpetration of interpersonal violence. I analyzed the qualitative data through thematic coding and narrative analysis of participant life histories. Results: I uncovered five distinct classes of men with specific patterns of ACEs. One was nonvictims and four included various forms of polyvictimization. Men in the polyvictimization classes that included non-violent family dysfunction variables had higher odds of perpetrating psychological IPV compared to the other three classes. Men in the polyvictimization classes that included any sexual violence and/or non-violent family dysfunction had higher odds of perpetrating PV compared to the other two classes. The qualitative study found three themes that helped explain the pathways between exposure to ACEs and IPV/PV: (1) early attachment to parents and parental acceptance (2) turning points; and (3) poverty and stress. Conclusions: These findings suggest that there are distinct patterns of exposure to ACEs among this population that are differentially related to perpetration of IPV and PV in adulthood. Potential mechanisms include attachment, turning points in the life course, and poverty. These findings highlight the importance of child development interventions in this context, both for the primary prevention of child adversity and for mitigation of the cognitive and emotional effects of different ACEs.Doctor of Philosoph

Culture and Social Change in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Individualism, Collectivism and Parenting Attitudes

Cultures and families are not static over time but evolve in response to social transformations, such as changing gender roles, urbanization, globalization, and technology uptake. Historically, individualism and collectivism have been widely used heuristics guiding cross-cultural comparisons, yet these orientations may evolve over time, and individuals within cultures and cultures themselves can have both individualist and collectivist orientations. Historical shifts in parents’ attitudes also have occurred within families in several cultures. As a way of understanding mothers’ and fathers’ individualism, collectivism, and parenting attitudes at this point in history, we examined parents in nine countries that varied widely in country-level individualism rankings. Data included mothers’ and fathers’ reports (N = 1338 families) at three time points in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. More variance was accounted for by within-culture than between-culture factors for parents’ individualism, collectivism, progressive parenting attitudes, and authoritarian parenting attitudes, which were predicted by a range of sociodemographic factors that were largely similar for mothers and fathers and across cultural groups. Social changes from the 20th to the 21st century may have contributed to some of the similarities between mothers and fathers and across the nine countries

"Nobody teases good girls" A qualitative study on perceptions of sexual violence and harassment among young men in the slums of Mumbai

OBJECTIVES: This paper seeks to better understand attitudes on sexual violence among young men in slum communities in Mumbai, India. METHODS: Ten focus group discussions were conducted with boys age 14-17 and young men age 18-24. Thematic analysis was performed using Atlas.ti 7. RESULTS: Despite a consensus on the lack of safety for girls in the community, sexual violence was justified by a seemingly instinctive designation of "good girls" and "bad girls." This is understood within the larger context of inequitable gender norms, drug and alcohol use, and lack of community sanctions against violence. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest multiple points of intervention for community mobilization in order to promote change in attitudes and behaviors towards sexual violence among this population.Master of Public Healt

‘Nobody teases good girls’: A qualitative study on perceptions of sexual harassment among young men in a slum of Mumbai

Young adulthood is a key period in which gender norms are solidified. As a result, young women are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence. In Delhi, over 90% of women have ever experienced sexual violence in public spaces. Sexual harassment of girls and women in public spaces is commonly named ‘eve teasing’ in India. Experience of sexual harassment in public spaces has been found to be associated with restricted mobility, interrupted education, and early age at marriage. Little is known about men’s perspectives on eve teasing and how they believe it affects women and girls. This study fills that gap through qualitative research to explore the attitudes and perceptions of adolescent boys and young men on this topic. Ten focus group discussions were conducted in two slum communities in Mumbai. Coding and thematic analysis were performed. We identified themes of acceptance of harassment, weak sanctions, traditional gender norms supportive of harassment, and ideologies of male sexual entitlement. Many of the perceived risk and protective factors for sexual harassment in public spaces are operationalised at the community level. Community mobilisation is necessary in designing interventions focused on the primary and secondary prevention of sexual harassment

Suicide behaviour among adolescents in a high HIV prevalence region of western Kenya: A mixed-methods study

The study purpose was to determine the prevalence and determinants of suicidal thoughts and behaviours in a rural community sample of 15–19-year-old Kenyan adolescents in a region with high HIV burden. Data were from an observational study examining ethical issues in adolescent HIV research (N=4084). Participants reporting suicidal ideation were assessed for suicide risk. Directed content analyses were conducted using assessment reports. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with suicide outcomes. Prevalence of suicidal ideation was 16%. Of these, 38% were low risk and 12% were moderate/high-risk. Females and sexually active adolescents had higher odds of suicidal ideation and being categorised as moderate/high-risk. Adolescents with higher depression scores had higher odds of reporting ideation. Pregnancy was protective for females while impregnating a partner was a risk factor for males. Abuse from a family member, financial stress and health concerns were the most frequently mentioned precipitants of ideation. However, only abuse increased odds of suicide behaviour. Effective programmes to identify and support sexually active, pregnant, and distressed adolescents at risk for suicide are needed. Approaches involving families, schools, health facilities, and community gatekeepers may have the most promise in sub-Saharan African rural areas with limited mental health services

Men's and women's views on acceptability of husband-to-wife violence and use of corporal punishment with children in 21 low- and middle-income countries

Background Monitoring violence against women and children, and understanding risk factors and consequences of such violence, are key parts of the action plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. Objective We examined how men’s and women’s views about the acceptability of husband-to-wife violence are related within households and how views about the acceptability of husband-to-wife violence are related to beliefs in the necessity of using corporal punishment to rear children and to reported use of corporal punishment with children. Participants and Setting:We used nationally representative samples of men and women in 37,641 households in 21 low- and middle-income countries that participated in UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Methods We conducted a series of logistic regression models, controlling for clustering within country, with outcomes of whether participants believe corporal punishment is necessary in childrearing, and whether a child in their household experienced corporal punishment in the last month. Results In 46 % of households, men, women, or both men and women believed husbands are justified in hitting their wives. Children in households in which both men and women believe husbands are justified in hitting their wives had 1.83 times the odds of experiencing corporal punishment as children in households in which neither men nor women believe husbands are justified in hitting their wives (95 % CI: 1.12, 2.97). Conclusions Working toward the realization of SDG 5 and SDG 16 involving prevention of violence against women and children, respectively, should be complementary undertakings.Accepted versio

A Longitudinal Examination of the Family Stress Model of Economic Hardship in Seven Countries

The Family Stress Model of Economic Hardship (FSM) posits that economic situations create differences in psychosocial outcomes for parents and developmental outcomes for their adolescent children. However, prior studies guided by the FSM have been mostly in high-income countries and have included only mother report or have not disaggregated mother and father report. Our focal research questions were whether the indirect effect of economic hardship on adolescent mental health was mediated by economic pressure, parental depression, dysfunctional dyadic coping, and parenting, and whether these relations differed by culture and mother versus father report. We conducted multiple group serial mediation path models using longitudinal data from adolescents ages 12–15 in 2008–2012 from 1,082 families in 10 cultural groups in seven countries (Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States). Taken together, the indirect effect findings suggest partial support for the FSM in most cultural groups across study countries. We found associations among economic hardship, parental depression, parenting, and adolescent internalizing and externalizing. Findings support polices and interventions aimed at disrupting each path in the model to mitigate the effects of economic hardship on parental depression, harsh parenting, and adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing problems

Positive Parenting, Adolescent Adjustment, and Quality of Adolescent Diet in Nine Countries

Introduction We sought to understand the relation between positive parenting and adolescent diet, whether adolescents\u27 internalizing and externalizing behaviors mediate relations between positive parenting and adolescent diet, and whether the same associations hold for both boys and girls and across cultural groups. Methods Adolescents (N = 1334) in 12 cultural groups in nine countries were followed longitudinally from age 12 to 15. We estimated two sets of multiple group structural equation models, one by gender and one by cultural group. Results Modeling by gender, our findings suggest a direct effect of positive parenting at age 12 on a higher quality diet at age 15 for males (β = .140; 95% CI: 0.057, 0.229), but an indirect effect of positive parenting at age 12 on a higher quality diet at age 15 by decreasing externalizing behaviors at age 14 for females (β = .011; 95% CI: 0.002, 0.029). Modeling by cultural group, we found no significant direct effect of positive parenting at age 12 on the quality of adolescent diet at age 15. There was a significant negative effect of positive parenting at age 12 on internalizing (β = −.065; 95% CI: −0.119, −0.009) and externalizing at age 14 (β = −.033; 95% CI: −0.086, −0.018). Conclusions We founder gender differences in the relations among positive parenting, adolescents\u27 externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and adolescent diet. Our findings indicate that quality of parenting is important not only in promoting adolescent mental health but potentially also in promoting the quality of adolescents\u27 diet

Parenting, Adolescent Sensation Seeking, and Subsequent Substance Use : Moderation by Adolescent Temperament

Although previous research has identified links between parenting and adolescent substance use, little is known about therole of adolescent individual processes, such as sensation seeking, and temperamental tendencies for such links. To testtenets from biopsychosocial models of adolescent risk behavior and differential susceptibility theory, this study investigatedlongitudinal associations among positive and harsh parenting, adolescent sensation seeking, and substance use and testedwhether the indirect associations were moderated by adolescent temperament, including activation control, frustration,sadness, and positive emotions. Longitudinal data reported by adolescents (n = 892; 49.66% girls) and their mothers fromeight cultural groups when adolescents were ages 12, 13, and 14 were used. A moderated mediation model showed thatparenting was related to adolescent substance use, both directly and indirectly, through sensation seeking. Indirectassociations were moderated by adolescent temperament. This study advances understanding of the developmental pathsbetween the contextual and individual factors critical for adolescent substance use across a wide range of cultural contexts.This article is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International License, w</p

Culture and social change in mothers' and fathers' individualism, collectivism and parenting attitudes

Cultures and families are not static over time but evolve in response to social transformations, such as changing gender roles, urbanization, globalization, and technology uptake. Historically, individualism and collectivism have been widely used heuristics guiding cross-cultural comparisons, yet these orientations may evolve over time, and individuals within cultures and cultures themselves can have both individualist and collectivist orientations. Historical shifts in parents' attitudes also have occurred within families in several cultures. As a way of understanding mothers' and fathers' individualism, collectivism, and parenting attitudes at this point in history, we examined parents in nine countries that varied widely in country-level individualism rankings. Data included mothers' and fathers' reports (N = 1338 families) at three time points in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. More variance was accounted for by within-culture than between-culture factors for parents' individualism, collectivism, progressive parenting attitudes, and authoritarian parenting attitudes, which were predicted by a range of sociodemographic factors that were largely similar for mothers and fathers and across cultural groups. Social changes from the 20th to the 21st century may have contributed to some of the similarities between mothers and fathers and across the nine countries.This research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of ChildHealth and Human Development grant RO1-HD054805 and Fogarty International Center grantRO3-TW008141. This research also was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)Grant P30 DA023026, the Intramural Research Program of the NIH/NICHD, USA, and an International Research Fellowship at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London, UK, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme(grant agreement No 695300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG)</p