Religion and intimate partner violence in Chile: macro- and micro-level influences

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4067

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Cultural Economics: Religion ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: Intimate partner violence ; religion ; Religion ; Geschlechterdiskriminierung ; Gewalt ; Chile

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lehrer, Evelyn Lilian ; Lehrer, Vivian L. ; Krauss, Ramona
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35438
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090327394
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET