TY - JOUR
T1 - How the Indashyikirwa Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Programme in Rwanda Influenced Parenting and Violence against Children
AU - Stern, Erin
AU - Heise, Lori
AU - Dunkle, Kristin
AU - Chatterji, Sangeeta
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper addresses this gap by assessing the influence of the Indashyikirwa IPV prevention programme in Rwanda on parent’s treatment of children and use of VAC. Indashyikirwa (meaning ‘agents of change’ in Kinyarwanda) was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) Rwanda and implemented by CARE International in Rwanda, Rwanda Women’s Network (RWN) and the Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC) from August 2014 through August 2018 (inclusive of a 14-month inception period). The programme was rigorously evaluated, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Global Programme. Although reduced IPV was the focus of Indashyikirwa and the primary outcome of the accompanying community randomized controlled trial (cRCT), children’s exposure to parental IPV and their experience of harsh physical punishment were included as secondary and exploratory outcomes, respectively ( ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT03477877). The cRCT demonstrated that the Indashyikirwa couples’ curriculum significantly reduced women’s experiences of IPV and men’s perpetration of IPV (for more details see Dunkle et al. ). It further found that women (adjusted risk ratio [aRR]: 0.34; 95% CI: 0.26, 0.45, p < .001) and men (aRR: 0.21; 95% CI: 0.16, 0.29, p < .001) who received the intervention reduced their endorsement of physical discipline in raising children. Parents in the treatment group also reported a significantly reduced frequency of smacking or beating children in the home compared to the control group (women: aRR: 0.46; 95% CI: 0.31, 0.68, p < .001; men: aRR: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.38, 0.75, p < .001). Among women who reported physical or sexual IPV, women in the treatment group had 67% lower odds of reporting that their children witnessed IPV (aRR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.20, 0.54, p < .001) as compared to women in the control group (Dunkle et al. ). These benefits were present at both the 12-month interim assessment and the final 24-month assessment. It is important to note that the vast majority of couples who participated in the curriculum were parents, with 91.2% of participants at midline and 91.4% at endline reporting children living in the home with them.
Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the Indashyikirwa partners of CARE International Rwanda, Rwanda Men?s Resource Center (RWAMREC) and Rwanda Women?s Network (RWN) for providing valuable input to validating and interpreting the findings. We also wish to acknowledge Dr. Lyndsay McLean, a co-investigator of the Indashyikirwa evaluation, as well as Henriette Byabagamba, Pacifique Barihuta and Justine Mirembe, for conducting the qualitative interviews. We also wish to thank all participants for sharing their experiences with us.
Funding Information:
This study is an output from the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Programme funded by UK Aid from the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The funding was managed by the South African Medical Research Council. We also wish to acknowledge the Wellspring Foundation for funding some of the time spent for ES, LH and SC to conduct analysis and write this paper. Acknowledgments
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - There is increasing interest in working at the intersections of intimate partner violence (IPV) and violence against children (VAC), especially in the family, yet few programmatic strategies exist or have been evaluated to assess the combined impact of strategies on both types of violence. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the influence that Indashyikirwa—a programme designed to reduce IPV in Rwanda— had on VAC in the families of couples participating in the programme. Indashyikirwa included a 21-session couples’ curriculum, safe spaces for IPV survivors, and community activism against violence. In addition to reductions in IPV, a randomized control trial found significant reductions in parent’s reports of children witnessing IPV, parents’ attitudes condoning harsh physical punishment of children, and parents’ use of corporal punishment as discipline. This paper uses qualitative data to better understand how and why the couples’ curriculum influenced parenting and VAC. Twenty-eight participants (fourteen male-female couples) were individually interviewed at three time points, once before and twice after the couples’ curriculum implementation. Six men and six women who completed the curriculum and subsequently carried out activism were also interviewed at two time points. The data were analyzed thematically. Pathways motivating couples’ attitude and behavior changes towards children included reflecting on the consequences of IPV for children and appreciating the benefits for children of non-violent, gender equitable households. This analysis suggests that working with co-habiting couples presents a viable strategy for working to prevent IPV, VAC and promote more gender equitable family dynamics.
AB - There is increasing interest in working at the intersections of intimate partner violence (IPV) and violence against children (VAC), especially in the family, yet few programmatic strategies exist or have been evaluated to assess the combined impact of strategies on both types of violence. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the influence that Indashyikirwa—a programme designed to reduce IPV in Rwanda— had on VAC in the families of couples participating in the programme. Indashyikirwa included a 21-session couples’ curriculum, safe spaces for IPV survivors, and community activism against violence. In addition to reductions in IPV, a randomized control trial found significant reductions in parent’s reports of children witnessing IPV, parents’ attitudes condoning harsh physical punishment of children, and parents’ use of corporal punishment as discipline. This paper uses qualitative data to better understand how and why the couples’ curriculum influenced parenting and VAC. Twenty-eight participants (fourteen male-female couples) were individually interviewed at three time points, once before and twice after the couples’ curriculum implementation. Six men and six women who completed the curriculum and subsequently carried out activism were also interviewed at two time points. The data were analyzed thematically. Pathways motivating couples’ attitude and behavior changes towards children included reflecting on the consequences of IPV for children and appreciating the benefits for children of non-violent, gender equitable households. This analysis suggests that working with co-habiting couples presents a viable strategy for working to prevent IPV, VAC and promote more gender equitable family dynamics.
KW - Gender norms
KW - Intimate partner violence
KW - Parenting
KW - Program evaluation
KW - Violence against children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094982051&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85094982051&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10896-020-00216-7
DO - 10.1007/s10896-020-00216-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85094982051
SN - 1053-0509
VL - 37
SP - 195
EP - 206
JO - Journal of Fluorescence
JF - Journal of Fluorescence
IS - 2
ER -