PCSVDFmulher (SPM/MDH)

Survey of Socioeconomic Conditions and Domestic and Family Violence against Women

PCSVDFmulher

Bureau of Women Policies/Ministry of Human Rights, Brazil

THE PCSVDFMULHER AS AN INNOVATIVE LONGITUDINAL STUDY

PCSVDFMulher (Survey of Socioeconomic Conditions and Domestic and Family Violence against Women) is an interinstitutional and international effort to build a unique dataset that enables the study of domestic violence, the allocation of resources in the household, women and children's health, and child development, and the interrelationships among them through an interdisciplinary approach (see, among others, Doss (2013) and Browning, Chiappori, and Weiss (2014)). The main institution responsible for the project's scientific management is the Universidade Federal do Ceará, UFC (PI Professor José Raimundo Carvalho, CAEN/UFC). UFC works in partnership with the Instituto Maria da Penha. It started in June/2015 with a budget from SPM - "Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres/Ministério da Justiça, Brazil." The project received the due approval by the Brazilian Scientific Ethical Committee (Approval Number 53690816.5.0000.5054). Along its way, it also received accessory financial support from IAST – Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse, France, and the World Bank, Washington.

PCSVDFMulher used CAPI (Computer - Assisted Personal Interviewing) data collection technology provided through the World Bank's Survey Solutions: a free computer-assisted personal interviewing software developed by the Development Research Group of the World Bank in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The second innovation of our project is the fact that we managed to develop a questionnaire able to approach the issue of gender violence from a real interdisciplinary perspective containing the following structure:

HOUSEHOLD SELECTION FORM
ADMINISTRATION FORM - RANDOM NUMBERS
WOMAN'S SELECTION FORM (WSF) - CHARACTERIZATION OF HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS
WOMAN'S QUESTIONNAIRE (WQ) - GENERAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
NORMS, AWARENESS/KNOWLEDGE ABOUT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THE ``MARIA DA PENHA LAW''
RESPONDENT AND HER PARTNER
BARGAINING POWER
EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE (CURRENT PARTNER, EX-PARTNER(MOST RECENT) OR ANY OTHER EX-PARTNER[G1]
EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE NOT RELATED TO PARTNER
MATCH VALUATION, SUBJECTIVE EXPECTATIONS AND COUNTERFACTUALS
SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION
RESULTS

The breadth and interdisciplinary structure of the questionnaire support our vision of approaching domestic violence from a modern, rigorous and interdisciplinary perspective. We employed a methodology based on the best international studies on victimization and gender violence. More specifically, as to aspects of gender violence questions and interview protocols, we want to mention the World Health Organization - WHO study ``Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women'', see, WHO (2005).

We back our claim of interdisciplinary by our choice of researchers and institutions. In fact, we formed a group with four institutions, say, a leading academic Brazilian university - Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil (UFC), a prestigious European center of research, Institute of Advanced Study in Toulouse, France (IAST), a top-rated European University, University of Toulouse, France (UT), and high profile Brazilian NGO with extensive experience in gender issues, Instituto Maria da Penha, Brazil (IMP).

METHODS OF ANALYSIS

We developed PCSVDFMulher as a longitudinal dataset and applied it to more than 10,000 households located in the nine capitals of the northeast region of Brazil. Thus, a fundamental innovation offered by this project consists in building a longitudinal database on gender violence in northeastern Brazil, containing two data collection ``waves''. PCSVDFMulher - Wave 1 has already been collected (March-June, 2016), as well as PCSVDFMulher - Wave 2 (March-June, 2017). We are confident we built an unprecedented interdisciplinary and high-quality dataset that will reward our efforts and move us into a privileged baseline for future investigations.

Ethical and safety guidelines for the conduct of this research were developed, and we followed them strictly. These emphasized individual informed consent and the importance of ensuring confidentiality and privacy, both as a means to protect the safety of respondents and field staff, and to improve the quality of the data.

WHAT PCSVDFMulher HAS ACHIEVED SO FAR?

Estimating the prevalence of domestic violence is a challenge, especially in developing countries such as Brazil due to the notorious sub notification not only of its prevalence but also of its intensity. The literature on violence against women repeatedly emphasizes that the majority of the victims not seek help and those who choose to look for support tend to resort to informal networks of friends, neighbors, relatives, religious institutions or community organizations.

PCSVDFMulher - Wave 1 visited 11,411 households and collected precisely 10,094 questionnaires that give a success rate of 88.46%. Given the detailed survey (an average duration around 90 minutes) and the sample size, we can conclude that we have for the first time at our disposal a very rich empirical evidence to study gender violence. Accordingly to our initial analysis of PCSVDFMulher - Wave 1 dataset our figures shows a complex, nuanced and reliable view of the actual links between the socioeconomic reality and gender violence in the Northeast of Brazil. To have a glimpse, we present the prevalence of the three main types of domestic violence, by state:

So far, PCSVDFMulher (Wave 1 and Wave 2) means that we have accomplished a thorough baseline empirical evidence, which can serve as a top quality benchmark to advance the knowledge about the socioeconomic determinants of domestic violence in Brazil.Results and analyses highlighted by PCSVDFMulher (see, Carvalho and Oliveira (2016)) have a very high potential to launch a research agenda in the area of domestic violence, empowerment, household bargaining and child development. However, we understand that the scientific research is a process of continuous improvement.

FUTURE OF PCSVDFMulher

Along these more than two years, we have produced Scientific Reports, Scientific Manuscripts (under review), involved graduate students (both M.Sc. and Ph.D.), and participated in several meetings, workshops, and public debates related to the theme of domestic violence and socioeconomic development. Notwithstanding that, we need to proceed and gather more data.

We justify collecting more waves of PCSVDFMulher as a critical priority of our proposal by means of six arguments: (i) expand the geographic and temporal scope (other states in Brazil and to cities in the countryside); (ii) evaluate the selectivity of sample attrition; (iii) redesign the sample; (iv) model socioeconomic behavior more accurately; (v) understand the process of transmission of domestic violence between generations and its implications to child development; and (vi) understand transition dynamics. Finally, our primary objectives in the next 4 – 6 months are: i) clean and prepare the longitudinal dataset for analysis, ii) re-organize our scientific group (deepening our interdisciplinary and international approach), and iii) look for financial resources to keep the project running.

José Raimundo Carvalho