Domestic violence and machismo: Examining the role of machismo on different types on violence among females

Violence against females is a very important health problem in Chile. Reports from SERNAM¹ suggest that in Chile, over 50% of females suffer from domestic violence in their households and is estimated that every day one woman is killed in Chile due to this type of violence. Although machismo is considered a main problem that may partly explain this problem in Chile, very few studies have examined it in this population. The aim of the present study was to examine machismo beliefs and its influence on different types of violence among females. Participants in the study were 310 males who were recruited and agreed to participate in an HIV prevention program for low income population in Chile. We excluded from the study all males within a homosexual relationship, since we wanted to examine violence against women. At baseline all participants completed a questionnaire that included questions regarding sexual behaviors, beliefs about HIV transmission (HIV-KQ), machismo beliefs (Neff, 2001), partner violence, depressive symptoms (CES-D) among others. When we examined the violence scale we found three main factors that accounted for all variance. These included domestic violence (physical and psychological violence), rage and anger (e.g. got upset and left the room, was upset and did not talk to her), and a third factor that included sexual violence and major injuries associated with violence episodes. The machismo scale loaded in one factor that accounted for all the explained variance, as did the CES-D. We run a multiple regression analyses using the subscales of violence as dependent variable, and controlling for age, educational status, depressive symptoms, among others. Our main results suggest that machismo only predicted anger and rage, but not violence or either major violent episodes. The explanations and implications of these results are further discussed.