The Effect of the Global Campaign against Intimate Partner Violence on Individuals’ Attitudes

• In Event: 425 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Paper Session. Global Governance and Local Practices

Abstract

Across 23 of 26 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries for which she has data, Pierotti (2013) finds that individuals’ became increasingly likely during the 2000s to state that they reject intimate partner violence as acceptable behavior. Variables related to structural socioeconomic or demographic changes, such as urban living, media access, educational achievement, or marital status, fail to explain the majority of this ideational shift. Accordingly, Pierotti reasons that global cultural scripts advocating against intimate partner violence are responsible for this rapid ideational shift. We replicate Pierotti’s study, expanding the analysis to 37 countries, and find similar results. Furthermore, we contend that foreign aid projects specifically aimed at reducing intimate partner violence have played a key role in diffusing global cultural scripts advocating against such violence. We employ multilevel models to test the influence of such projects on changes over time in individuals’ attitudes. We also test counterfactual national-level variables related to functional or modernization theories of ideational change, such as economic growth, international trade, foreign direct investment, and women in the labor force. Our preliminary results show that foreign aid projects targeted at reducing intimate partner violence have had a significant effect on this recent ideational shift. These results demonstrate that one way through which global cultural scripts are diffused are foreign aid projects.

Authors

• Taylor Brown, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Katrina Hauschildt, University of Michigan

• Louisa Roberts, The Ohio State University

• Jeffrey Swindle, University of Michigan