Summary, Rationale, and Research Objectives

This chapter has reviewed literature about the prevalence and impact of IPV on children and young people reported all over the world and recognised that IPV is a widespread social issue that needs serious efforts by researchers and policy makers throughout the world. Extensive research conducted in recent decades indicates that exposure to IPV has devastating implications for the mental health and well-being of children and young people (Emery, 2011; Graham-Bermann et al., 2007; McFarlane et al., 2003; Wolak & Finkelhor, 1998). The chapter has also incorporated an overview of the IPV situation in Pakistan and established that researchers there have largely not yet tackled the issue especially on children and young people living with IPV. The chapter has also reviewed some theoretical approaches explaining the phenomenon of IPV and its impacts for children and young people and found that two theoretical approaches have been central in trying to understand IPV. These are feminist perspectives that see gender and power as being central to the explanatory framework and theories that consider that intergenerational transmission of violence

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and dimensions of social learning approach are most compelling. The chapter also reflected on how a feminist intersectionality approach has incorporated other significant social categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, and social class that work alongside power and control and affect the prevalence and impacts of IPV.

Based on the premise of social learning theory, most of the research on intergenerational transmission of violence suggests that IPV exposure is predictive of later relationship violence (Chung, 2005; Wekerlee, et al., 2001). However, exposure to IPV does not necessarily mean that one will be violent in later life. Attitudes condoning violence may be an important variable in understanding the association between exposure to violence and later aggression (Faramarzi et al., 2005; Lawoko, 2008). However, it was established by the literature review in this chapter that exposure to IPV does not necessarily mean the development of favourable attitudes to violence, but rather different factors intersect with IPV and produce an impact.

With regard to the impact of IPV exposure on children and young people, the chapter also presented an overview of the risk and resiliency approach that highlights the role of accumulative stressors and the role of protective factors and recognised that it is important to consider these while researching the impact of IPV exposure on children and young people. Research on these protective factors can offer a framework for answering questions about the potential negative effects of exposure to IPV on attitudes of young adults and how they might be protected from them. Thus, exploring these resiliency factors during the transition to adulthood may have important implications for the development of healthy adult relationships for these individuals.

It was evident from the extensive literature review that no theory alone can capture the complexity of IPV exposure. Researchers have emphasised the significance of the

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concept of ‘triangulation’ (Bennett, 2012; Flick, 2011; Radford et al., 2013) of theories and methodologies to understand the complexity of phenomenon in social research. The research in this thesis has adopted insights from feminist intersectionality approaches, gender-specific social learning theory, and resiliency perspectives within an overall feminist framework to understand the impact of IPV exposure on young people. The theoretical approaches used in the present study complement each other and provide a strong conceptual and empirical base for any future intervention programmes.

I have chosen to utilize the feminist framework to a larger extent as compared to the other two theories mainly because it encompasses many aspects of gender specific social learning (Pagelow, 1981; Walker, 1994) and resilience framework (Westmarland, 2001). While considering the dynamics of power and control as central to the context of IPV, feminist intersectionality theory was utilized to demonstrate that other factors e.g., gender, social class, and living in extended/nuclear family system may intersect with IPV experiences and have differential impacts for young men and women. Gender-based social learning theories give importance to the traditional gender role expectations and the historical imbalance of power between women and men in a patriarchal society (Bell, 2008; Chornesky, 2000). Both feminists and social learning theorists recognise the significance of attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions in encouraging IPV (Markowitz, 2001; Tontodonato & Crew, 1992).

The third perspective that I have utilized in my research is a risk and resilience framework. Proponents of feminist intersectionality emphasize exposure to multiple forms of oppression just as the risk approach to violence conceives poly-victimization. Empowerment has been a major part of feminist theorizing and many feminist

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researchers (Worrell, 2001) focus on more inclusive models that reflect strengths, agency, resilience, and maintenance of productive wellbeing over time. From this perspective, in the context of the present research, exposure to IPV, when coupled with ongoing risk factors such as age, gender, socio-economic status, exposure to other forms of violence and hegemonic masculinity place young adults at high risk for developing favourable attitudes to spousal violence (Cicchetti & Toth, 1995). However, presence of multiple protective factors such as possessing a strong goal orientation, having personal ambition and assertiveness, high grades at school and college, locus of control, perceived social support, and positive parent-child attachment promote resilience by moderating the effects of cumulative risks (Kennedy, 2005; Werner & Smith, 2001).

There is a dearth of research on IPV in Pakistan. Risk and protective factors for children and young people living in a violent home have never been the focus of research in Pakistan. Hence, I strongly felt the need to explore the experiences and perspectives of young adults of IPV and what they think about how this has affected their lives. However, keeping in mind that in Pakistani society IPV is still considered to be a private affair that should only be talked about – if it is to be talked about at all – within the family, reporting it as a participant in a research study could be difficult for young adults, and social desirability could become a possible factor in the reporting of IPV. Hence, along with measuring multiple risk factors in the lives of young adults exposed to IPV, the present research also controlled for social desirability to improve the validity of the research.

Overall, opposing the popular transmission of violence hypothesis that presents IPV exposure as the single cause of predicting favourable attitudes towards IPV, there

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exists a complex interaction of factors influencing the relationship between IPV exposure and potential impacts. The present study assumes that young adults living with IPV can develop non-favourable or negative attitudes towards IPV depending on the presence of protective factors. In particular, the current study tried to identify the protective factors as perceived by young adults exposed to IPV so that a perspective from Pakistani young adults could be compared to the studies available internationally. Keeping all the previous literature in perspective, the present research aimed to study Pakistani young adults’ (18-25 years old) experiences and perspectives on the impact of their exposure to IPV and the role of protective factors. The following objectives were formulated on the basis of research questions identified in the last chapter:

1. To study the prevalence of IPV exposure of Pakistani young adults and its impact on their attitudes towards IPV.

2. To investigate the co-occurrence of IPV and parent-child violence.

3. To explore how young adults perceive the impact of and protective factors in the context of IPV.

4. To study the role of different socio-demographic variables e.g., gender, social class, family system, parental education, mothers’ employment status, parent- child attachment, and perceived social support, religiosity, etc. in terms of impact on IPV exposure by young men and women.

The following chapter discusses the methodology that underpinned this study. It also presents the details of a mixed method research design that was used to achieve the above mentioned research objectives. Issues of access, ethics, and how the research was carried out are also discussed in the next chapter.

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