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The Ecological
Framework
The World Health Organization (2002) offers the Ecological
Framework, which is based on evidence that no single factor
can explain why some people or groups are at higher risk of
interpersonal violence, while others are more protected from
it. This framework views interpersonal violence as the outcome
of interaction among many factors at four levels-the individual,
the relationship, the community, and the societal (Krug, et
al., 2002). The Ecological Framework specifically addresses
the risk and protective factors, which were also a part of
the Public Health Model addressed previously.
- At the individual level, personal history and
biological factors influence how individuals behave and
increase their likelihood of becoming a victim or a perpetrator
of violence. Among these factors are being a victim of child
maltreatment, psychological or personality disorders, alcohol
and/or substance abuse and a history of behaving aggressively
or having experienced abuse.
- Personal relationships such as family, friends,
intimate partners and peers may influence the risks of becoming
a victim or perpetrator of violence. For example, having
violent friends may influence whether a young person engages
in or becomes a victim of violence.
- Community contexts in which social relationships
occur, such as schools, neighborhoods and workplaces, also
influence violence. Risk factors here may include the level
of unemployment, population density, mobility and the existence
of a local drug or gun trade.
- Societal factors influence whether violence is
encouraged or inhibited. These include economic and social
policies that maintain socioeconomic inequalities between
people, the availability of weapons, and social and cultural
norms such as those around male dominance over women, parental
dominance over children and cultural norms that endorse
violence as an acceptable method to resolve conflicts.
The Ecological Framework treats the interaction between factors
at the different levels with equal importance to the influence
of factors within a single level. For example, longitudinal
studies suggest that complications associated with pregnancy
and delivery, perhaps because they lead to neurological damage
and psychological or personality disorder, seem to predict
violence in youth and young adulthood mainly when they occur
in combination with other problems within the family, such
as poor parenting practices. The ecological framework helps
explain the result-violence later in life-as the interaction
of an individual risk factor, the consequences of complications
during birth, and a relationship risk factor, the experience
of poor parenting. This framework is also useful to identify
and cluster intervention strategies based on the ecological
level in which they act. For example, home visitation interventions
act in the relationship level to strengthen the bond between
parent and child by supporting positive parenting practices.
Figure 2. The Ecological Framework: Examples
of Risk Factors at Each Level
Used by permission. World Health Organization
(WHO) 2002.
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