The role of income inequality on factors associated with male physical Intimate Partner Violence perpetration: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This study examines the influence of income inequality on risk markers for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in countries with low and high income inequality measured by the GINI index. Examining male perpetration of IPV, we used meta-analytic procedures to learn if income inequality moderated the strength of the relationship between well-established risk markers and IPV. We found that young age, relationship dissatisfaction, violence towards non-family members, and emotional abuse perpetration were significantly stronger risk markers for countries with high income inequality than for countries with low income inequality. We also found that having experienced trauma was a significantly stronger risk marker for countries with low income inequality than for countries with high income inequality. We also ran additional analyses between high and low income inequality countries excluding research conducted in the United States. Here we found that perpetrating emotional abuse, relationship dissatisfaction, and witnessing IPV in family of origin were all significantly stronger risk markers in high income inequality countries compared to low income inequality countries Our findings suggest that income inequality impacts risk markers for male IPV perpetration.