Family Closeness and Domestic Abuse Among Caribbean and South American Women in South Florida

Abstract

This paper focuses on the importance of family member closeness as a protective factor against domestic abuse. We explore the link between long-lasting relations within the family and intrafamilial violence perpetrated against women in Latino households in South Florida. We use data from an Inter-generational Transmission of Drug Use between Latina Mothers and Daughters (ITDMD) study. The study includes data on family relations and domestic abuse. We estimate a series of multivariate regressions to obtain the probability of abuse against women, the types of abuse inflicted and the relationship with the abusers. Our results indicate that among abused women, the effects of long-lasting relations within the family differ depending on the type of relationship between the abuser and the victim and the degree of closeness the victim feels towards other family members. Given these findings, there is a need to further study family relations and abuse in Latino households. Domestic abuse is a forceful tactic intentionally employed by family members to cause physical and/or psychological harm to the victim (e.g. emotional, physical, and sexual abuse). Although domestic violence in the United States (U.S.) has been widely researched (Agoff et al. 2007;Anderson 2010;Cunradi et al. 2009;Handwerker 1998; Tjaden and Thoennes 1998), the bulk of the literature on this topic has largely concentrated on the risk factors for abuse; few studies have discussed the importance of family member closeness as a protective factor in domestic abuse. These studies provide frameworks that place familylevel contextual factors as measured by co-residence with parents, as the most influential of the ecological levels in determining children's exposure to violence (Cicchetti and Lynch 1993;Hanson et al. 2006). HHS Public AccessHowever, extant studies have not looked at the quality of the child-parental relationship and their relation with lifetime domestic abuse. Moreover, despite abundant research, few studies have documented the problem of domestic violence and the underlying factors influencing it in U.S. Latino populations, the fastest growing and largest minority group in the United States (Adames and Campbell 2005;Agoff et al. 2007;Bonomi et al. 2009;Fedovskiy et al. 2008;Glass et al. 2009;Ingram 2007;Moreno 2007). The few studies which have documented domestic violence among Latinos, show limited and mixed evidence on its prevalence levels or information on the risk factors influencing this problem (Brabeck and Guzman 2008;Brown 2009;Hazen and Soriano 2007;Klevens et al. 2007).Furthermore, since a large majority of the Latino population in the U.S. is of Mexican descent, many studies have focused on this immigrant group only. However, research on domestic violence has found that different Latino groups show variations in risk markers for wife assault and violence against women (Aldarondo et al. 2002). Wife abuse does not have the same disapproval among the different Latino groups (Kantor et al. 1994). Similarly, there is a paucit...

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