INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND PATRIARCHY: A MACRO-LEVEL ANALYSIS

Past studies of intimate partner violence (IPV) have extensively examined causes at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. However, as a worldwide issue, a complete understanding of IPV cannot be obtained without investigating macro-level causes and international variations. Thus, I examined national-level patriarchal beliefs as a macro-level societal cause of IPV. The research question is do national-level patriarchal beliefs in a country affect its IPV rate? To answer the question, I extracted variables from the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx), the World Values Survey (WVS), and the Quality of Government Dataset (QoG) and analyzed them using quantitative linear regressions with country fixed effects models. The results initially indicated a positive association between IPV and Patriarchy. However, such association became negative and non-significant with the presence of social structural variables. Therefore, I concluded that national-level patriarchal beliefs in a country do not affect its IPV rate, and more prominent causes of IPV are a country’s social structures, such as female’s educational attainment, income inequality, and democracy.