Risk Marker Analysis of Wife Assault in Latino Families

• NCJ Number: 194591
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2002 Pages: 429-454
• Author(s): Etiony Aldarondo; Glenda Kaufman Kantor; Jana L. Jasinski
• Date Published: April 2002
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): RO1AA09070
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study used national survey data to assess the utility of commonly recognized risk markers for wife assault to predict violence against women in various ethnic groups of Latino families (Mexican, Mexican-American, and Puerto Rican).

Abstract

The literature suggests that factors such as age, socioeconomic stress, and approval of violence may increase the risk of wife assault in various ethnic groups of Latino families. This study built on the authors' prior examination of data from the National Alcohol and Family Violence Survey (NAFVS) by systematically examining the effects of the latter factors in combination with other commonly recognized individual and relationship risk markers for wife assault in a sample of Mexican, Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, and Anglo-American families. The NAFVS consisted of face-to-face interviews with a national probability sample of married or cohabiting heterosexual couples, including an oversample of 846 Latino couples. One member of each household, either the husband or the wife, was randomly selected and interviewed. The current analysis involved data from 1,193 respondents (653 female and 539 male) from the original sample of 1,970 who completed the NAFVS. Consistent with other evaluations of NAFVS data, wife-assault prevalence rates were higher among Mexican-American and Puerto Rican families than among Mexican and Anglo-American families. Mexican and Mexican-American women reported lower violence rates than did men from the same ethnic groups. This reporting difference may indicate a heightened personal vulnerability and mistrust of official intrusions in family life experienced by immigrant women in the United States. Level of conflict emerged as the strongest and most stable factor across ethnic group and gender of respondent. Generic risk markers did not adequately account for the observed between-group variability. The results highlight the need to investigate both generic and culture-specific variables associated with an increased risk for wife assault. 7 tables and 38 references