Custodes Futurifor the advancement of humanity

Social factor, barrier 4 of 6

Harmful relationships

Harmful relationships, such as abuse, neglect, or control, undermine autonomy and self-worth. Childhood abuse and household dysfunction are covered under early-life adversity in the biological factor.

Evidence

  • Partner violence. Based on 366 studies covering 2 million women in 161 countries, an estimated 27% of ever-partnered women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner, and 13% in the past year. Rates are higher in low-income countries (Sardinha et al., 2022).
  • Effects on work are mixed. Among 1,311 Illinois welfare recipients, recent partner violence was linked to unstable employment through health problems (National Institute of Justice). In Tanzania, abused women earned less. A Colombian study found partner violence increased women's employment, possibly as a way to escape (EAFIT seminar abstract).
  • Strength. All are observational, so the effect of adult partner violence on achievement is rated C.

Proposed and experimental methods

Methods that are proposed, under trial, approved in some places, or tried and then failed. Each shows a stage label and an evidence rating. A stage label shows how far a method has progressed, not whether it works. The stage labels are explained on the social factor page.

  • Cash transfers to reduce intimate partner violence (Large trial, B). Builds on "Learned helplessness and low sense of control" in the psychological factors (guaranteed income). A review of cash transfer programs in low- and middle-income countries found that 11 of 14 quantitative and 5 of 8 qualitative studies showed decreases in intimate partner violence (IPV), and only two showed mixed or adverse effects (Buller et al., 2018). The authors propose that economic security lowers violence, while effects through household conflict and women's empowerment depend on program design.
  • Participatory gender and HIV training for young people (Large trial, B). In 70 villages in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, the 50-hour Stepping Stones program lowered the share of men reporting IPV perpetration over two years and cut new herpes simplex type 2 infections by about 33%, but did not lower HIV incidence, and women did not report the desired behavior changes (Jewkes et al., 2008). Perpetration was self-reported.
  • Microfinance combined with gender training (Early trial, B). In the IMAGE trial in eight villages in Limpopo, South Africa, loans to poor women combined with a gender and HIV curriculum at loan meetings reduced participants' past-year experience of physical or sexual IPV by 55% (adjusted risk ratio 0.45), with no effect on HIV incidence (Pronyk et al., 2006). With only eight villages, the result needs replication.
  • Community mobilization, SASA! (Large trial, C). In a trial in eight Kampala communities with 2,532 people surveyed at follow-up, SASA! lowered women's social acceptance of IPV (adjusted risk ratio 0.54) and was associated with 52% lower past-year physical IPV among women, but the confidence interval for physical IPV (0.16 to 1.39) included no effect (Abramsky et al., 2014). The authors report that the program was being replicated in 15 countries.
  • Safety decision apps (Early trial, C). The myPlan app gives a tailored safety plan based on a person's priorities and danger level. In a trial with 293 college students who had a friend experiencing IPV, myPlan improved decisional preparedness and one part of decisional conflict right after use and confidence to talk about their own relationship at 12 months, but at 12 months the groups did not differ in safety and support strategies used or in IPV attitudes (Bloom et al., 2023).
  • Not shown to help: batterer intervention programs (In wide use, C). A meta-analysis of 22 controlled studies of treatment for violent men found effects "in the small range," with no difference between Duluth model and cognitive-behavioral programs, and concluded that current programs have minimal impact on repeat violence beyond the effect of being arrested (Babcock et al., 2004). A later meta-analysis of 25 studies found a moderate overall effect that was not generalizable across studies, positive in official records but null in partner reports, and larger for cognitive-behavioral than Duluth programs (Arce et al., 2020), so the size of any effect remains unresolved.

Sources cited on this page

  1. Sardinha, L., Maheu-Giroux, M., Stöckl, H., Meyer, S. R., & García-Moreno, C. (2022). Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual, or both, intimate partner violence against women in 2018. Lancet, 399(10327), 803-813. DOI02664-7) B Moderate: modeled
  2. Abramsky, T., Devries, K., Kiss, L., Nakuti, J., Kyegombe, N., Starmann, E., et al. (2014). Findings from the SASA! Study: A cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a community mobilization intervention to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV risk in Kampala, Uganda. BMC Medicine, 12, 122. link C Limited
  3. Arce, R., Arias, E., Novo, M., & Fariña, F. (2020). Are interventions with batterers effective? A meta-analytical review. Psychosocial Intervention, 29(3), 153-164. link C Limited
  4. Babcock, J. C., Green, C. E., & Robie, C. (2004). Does batterers' treatment work? A meta-analytic review of domestic violence treatment. Clinical Psychology Review, 23(8), 1023-1053. link C Limited: (changed from B on October 8, 2026, because a later meta-analysis reached different conclusions on effect size and program type, leaving the size of effects unresolved)
  5. Bloom, T. L., Perrin, N., Brown, M. L., Campbell, J., Clough, A., Grace, K. T., et al. (2023). Concerned friends of intimate partner violence survivors: Results from the myPlan randomized controlled trial on college campuses. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 1033. link B Moderate
  6. Buller, A. M., Peterman, A., Ranganathan, M., Bleile, A., Hidrobo, M., & Heise, L. (2018). A mixed-method review of cash transfers and intimate partner violence in low- and middle-income countries. The World Bank Research Observer, 33(2), 218-258. link B Moderate
  7. Jewkes, R., Nduna, M., Levin, J., Jama, N., Dunkle, K., Puren, A., et al. (2008). Impact of Stepping Stones on incidence of HIV and HSV-2 and sexual behaviour in rural South Africa: Cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 337, a506. link B Moderate
  8. Pronyk, P. M., Hargreaves, J. R., Kim, J. C., Morison, L. A., Phetla, G., Watts, C., et al. (2006). Effect of a structural intervention for the prevention of intimate-partner violence and HIV in rural South Africa: A cluster randomised trial. The Lancet, 368(9551), 1973-1983. link B Moderate

Every source for this factor is listed on the social factor page.