The association between intimate partner violence and proximate measures of child health

Annie Dude, University of Chicago
Rebekah A. Burroway, Duke University

Previous studies indicate that partner violence among mothers is often associated with increased risk of childhood mortality. We examine the association between a mother’s experience of physical intimate partner violence and 5 health outcomes that contribute to child mortality, including: number of vaccines, stunting, wasting, underweight, and diarrhea. Our preliminary analysis of the 2007 Dominican Republic DHS indicates that children whose mothers have experienced physical intimate partner violence have received fewer vaccines, are more likely to be underweight, and are more likely to have had diarrhea recently. Although the effects of violence are attenuated with additional controls, violence remains a significant predictor of a child’s likelihood of being underweight and a marginally significant predictor of a child’s likelihood of having diarrhea recently. This provides some evidence that a mother’s experience of physical violence relates to child health. We expand this analysis to include several other countries for cross-national comparison.