Domestic Violence in Chinese Societies - Term Paper Example

?One of the most pervasive social problems that exist today in Chinese societies, more specifically Hong Kong, is that of domestic violence. Researchgoes to show that studies reveal that about one third of married couples in Hong Kong had engaged in fights (Xu, 1995). A study conducted later goes to outline the severity of the problem by pointing out that at least 21.5% of husbands assaulted their wives, with approximately 1% doing so on regular basis (Lee, 2005). The severity of the DV and IPV problem in the world is presented with statistic. China accounts for 21% of the world’s population (1300) and studies reported prevalence of IPV against women ranged from 13% to 37% in urban areas and 7% to 66% in rural areas (Wang et al. p.533), the characteristics of the Chinese DV and IPV problem and people’s response toward these problem serves to be of focal importance. China was a patriarchal society for an extensive history. The traditional gender expectation for a Chinese woman is to have absolute obedience, loyalty and devotion to her father, husband and even sons. Chinese men’s superiority and women’s inferiority were heavily embedded in many aspects of social life. Until nowadays, individual’s and public’s perceptions of DV and IPV are shaped by this traditional patriarchal ideology (Sun et al. p. 217,Yanqiu et al. p. 1307). But in Western societies, especially for developed countries like the U.S, women’s movement from the 18 century had enhanced individual awareness and public consciousness of women’s right and thus shapes the attitudes toward DV and IPV (Sun et al. 2010, p. 217). Because of the cultural differences between China and western societies, the reasons account for DV and IPV is quite different too, for example, study found that in-law conflict is one of the major causes for DV and IPV because most of the Chinese married couples live with their in-law (Chan 2010). As far as the research conducted on domestic violence is concerned Sun et al, 2010, conducted a study which aimed to analyze the attitude that individuals adopted towards the police response as far as domestic violence is concerned. Ivan et al. made use of a sample that comprised of a survey questionnaire that contains about a 100 items which were administered to university students. The sample comprised of making use of a total of 654 students from China and America and by the use of purposive-and convenient sampling methods looked to analyze the difference in their reactions and perceptions. Sun et al. conducts research on the topic by making use of a number of variables, the dependent ones having two measures which denote the attitude of the individuals towards the police as either proactive or traditional as far as domestic violence was concerned. The independent variables used were those that had to do with the background characteristics, experiences, and attitudes as far as gender role and violence was concerned. The data gathered was analyzed by means of a bivariate and a multivariate analysis. The research design used was primarily qualitative descriptive in nature as the means of data gathering was through the use of questionnaire and surveys that was distributed. The adaptation of a descriptive qualitative research method was one that was most frequently found in the numerous studies conducted on the topic of domestic violence. We see Chan et al, 2010, conduct a similar study based on a qualitative design, which although did not approach the topic by highlighting key differences of individuals from different geographical locations but aimed to analyze the aspect childhood sexual abuse by focusing primarily on Hong Kong. The sample incorporated of households that were through random selection used as a part of the representative population study that was conducted. The sample size was also comparatively larger with over 1154 respondents, who were 16 or above and could speak English. They majority of the sample was male whereas 46% were female, with a varied level of education. The sample was interviewed in person by trained household research interviewers who focused on variables such as the frequency of the children who had witnessed parental violence when younger, childhood sexual abuse as well as adult sexual victimization by other; the suicidal idealization was also looked at, along with the self-esteem of the individual in the sample. The analysis, despite the similarity of the research design, was also different from that which was adopted by Ivan et al. Where previously bivariate analysis was conducted in order to assess the results for this study Chan et al. made use of descriptive analysis in order to gain a clear picture of the gender differences in socio-demographics and the frequency of violence. Building on this study Chan, 2010, primarily focusing on Hong Kong as a base of research using a large representative sample of 2363 Chinese parents examines the prevalence of co-occurrence of partner violence as well as child abuse and neglect. The two studies have several overlapping aspects as far as their similar research design is concerned as well as similarity in sample selection, analyzing risk factors and demographically administering the questionnaire is concerned. A much more different approach can also be taken when it comes to analyzing domestic violence in terms of the protection that is available for battered spouses in Hong Kong; as is done by Chan and Lam, 2005. They make use of a sample focused on Hong Kong however their focus is on discussions and aspects of intervention which might hint towards the qualitative design leaning towards a more quasi-experimental approach. Tiwari et al., 2010, methodology as far as conducting an analysis on the difference interventions would make on improving the depressive symptoms that are experienced by a Chinese woman survivor of Intimate Partner violence (IPV) is concerned. The sample used is relatively small with about 200 Chinese women over the age of 18, having a history of IPV, volunteering on their own. The research design is also similar to the one used by Chan and Lam, 2005, in the way it hints towards a more qualitative intervention methodology with methods like assessor blinded randomized controlled trials incorporated in the study. There was considerably a vast amount of research conducted on analyzing violence by looking at its prevalence in the rural areas of Hong Kong and China. Despite the adaptation of a similar research design that being primarily descriptive qualitative in nature with the main data collection method being that of interview, surveys and questionnaires the studies conducted by numerous researchers, like Huan et al., 2010 and Gao et al, 2011 that focused on rural western China. However the two studies focus on two divergent theoretical frameworks despite having the same qualitative descriptive research design. Huan et al focuses his community studies on predictive roles of recent life events, psychological functioning, social support and the attitudes toward DV in abusive behaviors of DV by making use of a stratified design selected from Hunan province to represent the rural population. Another differentiating aspect of Huan et al.’s study is the use of a comparison of the results between 300 abusive and 300 non-abusive families by making use of a Life Event Scale for a 1 year period. Gao et al. targeted the population of rural western China with the sample for the study comprising of a total of 1771 women from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region by randomly selecting 2 out of 9 towns from the high income group. The theoretical framework of this specific study varied in the way it aimed to look at the association between IPV and suicidal ideation. These were the two key variables that the study focused on with the measures employed being by making use of the Scale for Suicide Ideation and face to face interviews hence affirming its qualitative descriptive design as being in line with that of Huan et al’s. What sets the research conducted by Wang 1999, apart from the numerous other studies conducted on domestic violence is that of the use of the social learning theory to formulate as a basis for the theoretical framework. It looks to answer the question: What kinds of violence occur in this population and what’s the victim’s attitude toward the IPV. This it does by making use of a research design based on the formulation of a case study. What this study has in common with the work of Gao et al. and Huan et al. is that it makes use of a sample of women from the city as well as rural areas by making use of hotlines to communicate with the victims of domestic violence. Furthermore the variables that it aims to analyze and keep in consideration are those of the victim age, their education level, vocational level as well as their attitude post the violence. The way that the results for each of the study vary despite the analysis of a similar topic is vastly interesting. The most popular and frequently research design used by a majority of the researchers in order to conduct their studies is that of the qualitative descriptive framework in order to analyze the various aspects and implications of domestic violence. Despite this core similarity the results for each study vary greatly. Sun et al.’s study which uses a broad local and non-local sample tends to be highly conclusive in the way it shows that when compared to the Americans, the Chinese students were more likely to support reactive police response to DV and less inclined to favor proactive police response to domestic violence. There are some weaknesses of this study, these have to do with the reliability and validity in the way a key consideration is the fact that Hong Kong‘s legal system, official policy and police response in the area of DV are not identical to those in mainland China and so the student sample may not be generalized to the general population. Chan et al, 2010, who also uses a qualitative descriptive research methodology however makes use of a considerably smaller sample in his study. The results of the study show that childhood sexual abuse directly affected the intimate partner violence as well as suicidal ideation. The tendency of increased IPV was seen to increase with behavioral and psychological elements of victims being those of substance abuse, increased sexual activity as well as low self-esteem. There was also an increased tendency towards suicidal ideation by drug abuse, witnessing of aggression and low self-esteem. However a key limitation and weakness of this study is the way it uses a cross-sectional comparison in order to draw a conclusive causal association between IPV and suicidal ideation. Overcoming this specific weakness Chan, 2010, expands his research sample to a total of 2363 Hong Kong and Chinese and incorporating a stratified sample design. The results of the study go to conclude that IPV strongly correlates with CAN. Also that mothers are more likely to perpetrate than fathers and that prevalence rates of victimization for physical assault, injury or sexual coercion were 15.7%. Chan and Lam, 2005 analysis was based on the theoretical framework that focused on the multi-disciplinary guidelines on the handling of battered spouse cases with the adoption of a qualitative research design however there are significant flaws in the reliability of their findings. The study concludes that the public pays lesser attention towards battered wives than abusive children and that battered wives are looked at as more of an individual or marital problem. However the study fails to address the aspects of safety that have to do with the generation of results and the other external variables that might have an impact on the findings. Similarly due to the incorporation of a relatively smaller sample of 200 Chinese women focused on by Tiwari et al, 2010, the findings of the study denote that by advocating intervention no difference as far as clinically meaningful improvement was concerned was made to improve the depressive symptoms for Chinese women. Perhaps by incorporating a wider sample with a lot more diversity in reference to age and geographical locations had been made as part of the study the results might have been more conclusive as far as proposing a viable solution to the treatment of domestically abused women was concerned. Gao et al, 2011, focusing on the rural western China with an incorporation of a wide sample of over 1771 women resulted in the study concluding that women who had suffered physical assault in the preceding year were 4.2 times greater risks of suicidal ideation than those who had not suffered such an assault. Younger women had a greater risk, higher education and higher tendency to commit suicide. Furthermore that rural suicidal is 3 times as higher than urban suicide rates, especially as far as younger women were concerned. Despite the comprehensive findings a key weakness of the study is the fact that it leaves room as the characterization of the evolution of IPV and thoughts or acts of self-harm over time are concerned. There were no follow up calls to reinforce the results of the study over time. In comparison based on a much limited sample range although the same research designs Huan et. Al’s study showed that aggressive behavior within domestic violence families is quite acceptable and frequent for domestic violence abusers (81%) with key criticism for these findings that of the use of self-report data as well as the poor translation of the data collected from the sample. Research conducted by Wong on the kind of violence and the reaction towards IPV in rural areas based on the social learning theory goes to show that traditional feudal concepts and customs are stronger in rural areas and women believe every man hits their wives. Also it showed the vast difference in women’s attitude towards IPV in the city and the suburbs. The findings based on a diverse and comprehensive sample is seen to be reliable and more generalizable as far as domestic violence and its perception in the rural and urban parts of Hong Kong are concerned. References Sun, Ivan., Su, Mingyue and Wu, Yuning. (2010). Attitude toward police response to domestic violence: a comparison of Chinese and American college students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 26, (16), 3289–3315. Chan, K., Yan, Elsie, Brownridge, D., Tiwari, A and Fong, D. (2011). Childhood sexual abuse associated with dating partner violence and suicidal ideation in a representative household sample in Hong Kong. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 26(9), 1763–1784 Chan, Y. and Lam, Gladys. (2005).Unraveling the rationale for a one-stop service under the Family and Child Protection Services Units in Hong Kong. International Social Work 48(4): 419–428 Chan, Ling. (2010). Co-Occurrence of Intimate Partner Violence and Child Abuse in Hong Kong Chinese Families. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 26(7), 1322–1342 Chan, L. and Zhang. (2010). Female Victimization and Intimate Partner Violence After the May 12, 2008, Sichuan Earthquake. 2011 Springer Publishing Company Lee, J., Pomeroy, E., Yoo, S., & Rheinboldt, K. (2005). Attitudes toward rape: A comparison between Asian and Caucasian college students. Violence Against Women, 11, 177-196. Wang, X. (2008). Violence in intimate relationships: The investigation of 1,035 college students (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. Xu, A. (1995). The initiation of family violence: Current situations and characteristics of assaulting behavior among married couples in Shanghai. Sociological Study, 1, 86-91. Read More