Factors of Family Violence in the Southern Province of Rwanda

Abstract

Background
Despite the elevated prevalence and detrimental effects of family violence on survivors in developing countries, little is known about a dimensional empirically based comprehensive structure of family violence.
Objectives
Based on family violence theories, this study aimed to identify factors of family violence in a sample of Rwandans living in all the eight District Police Units of the Southern Rwanda.
Methods
A sample of 89 spouses (females = 56.5%, males = 43.5%) were selected to participate in this cross-sectional study. From already existing family violence theories and family violent events lived by participants of this study, a 38-item self-constructed Likert questionnaire (α=0.80) was generated. An exploratory factor analysis approach was used.
Results
The results showed that two factors mostly influencing violence in family were mainly based on individual issues (i.e. violence as a trauma, insecure attachment, aggressive behaviour learnt, reactive aggression, and learnt helplessness) and family-social issues (i.e. family life cycle and stress, dependency relation, need to maintain power and control, and low material satisfaction).
Conclusions
The results highlight that family violence is a very complex but assessable entity where individual and family-social factors intervene. Future studies should explore such combination in prospective longitudinal studies.

Rwanda J Med Health Sci 2022;5(1):9-19