A latent class analysis to identify how patterns of Intimate Partner Violence influence Early Childhood Development...

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against women is a complex phenomenon with long-term consequences for victims and their families.

The goals of this study are two-fold: to identify common patterns of co-occurring and/or successive experiences with IPV; and to study the association between these IPV patterns and outcomes of Early Childhood Development (ECD) among the victim's children.

Data was obtained from the 2011-12 Honduras Demographic Health Survey (DHS).

A Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted to define homogeneous patterns of experiences with IPV in terms of the type, severity, timing of the last event, and perpetrator of the violence. Outcomes of interest were binary variables indicating if a child is developmentally on track according to the ECD index and its four domains. LCA with distal outcomes and multivariate logistic regressions were used to measure the association between IPV patterns and ECD outcomes.

Five patterns of lifetime experiences with IPV were identified: (1)"no violence"; (2)"physical and sexual violence by an ex-partner"; (3)"current emotional violence"; (4)"current controlling, emotional and physical violence"; and (5)"past controlling, emotional and physical violence". Multivariate results show that children were less likely to be developmentally on track if their mothers were exposed to patterns of "physical and sexual violence by an ex-partner" or "current controlling, emotional and physical violence", relative to children whose mothers had not experienced violence. Further analysis of specific ECDI domains suggested that IPV hampers children's socioemotional development, but it is not associated with other domains of ECD.

Experiencing a pattern of co-occurrent forms of IPV negatively influences ECD and the socio-emotional development of the victim's children in low and middle-income countries. This study provides initial evidence about the complexity of this phenomenon and its long-lasting sequels.