Religion and intimate partner violence in Chile: macro- and micro-level influences.
The Catholic Church has had a strong influence on the Chilean legal and social landscape in ways that have adversely affected victims of intimate partner violence; e.g., it succeeded until just five years ago in blocking efforts to legalize divorce. At the same time, quantitative studies based on survey data from the United States and other countries show a generally favorable influence of religion on health and many other domains of life, including intimate partner violence. The present study explores the puzzle posed by these seemingly opposing macro- and micro-level forces. Results based on data from the 2005 Survey of Student Well-Being, a questionnaire on gender-based violence administered to students at a large public university in Chile, show that moderate or low levels of religiosity are associated with reduced vulnerability to violence, but high levels are not. This non-linearity sheds light on the puzzle, because at the macro level the religious views shaping Chile's legal and social environment have been extreme.
Economics Department, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607-7121, USA. elehrer@uic.edu
Evelyn L
EL
Lehrer
Vivian L
VL
Lehrer
Ramona C
RC
Krauss
D002410:Catholicism / Q000523:psychology*; D002677:Chile; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012016:Reference Values; D012067:Religion; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult