Latest news with #InstituteofFamilyStudies
7NEWS
5 days ago
- Health
- 7NEWS
One in three Australian men say they have committed intimate partner violence
More than one in three men in Australia have reported using violence with an intimate partner in a first of its kind study which shows gender-based abuse is rising, despite years of national attention on the issue. The research was part of a longitudinal study called Ten to Men by Australia's Institute of Family Studies, which began in 2013 and now involves around 24,000 boys and men. Intimate partner violence is defined as emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The study found that the number of men using violence with their partners has risen over the past decade. Last time the survey was conducted in 2013-2014, roughly 1 in 4 (24 per cent) men had committed intimate partner violence. That figure has risen to 1 in 3 (35 per cent). That equates to about 120,000 men using intimate partner violence for the first time each year. In 2022, the government launched its 10-year National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, with a majority priority of advancing gender equality. But since January last year, 100 women have been killed nationwide, according to Counting Dead Women. Recent protests have called for the government to do much more to end gender-based violence. 'The fact that one in three men in the study reported using intimate partner violence should shake every Australian,' violence against women advocate and co-founder of Not One More Niki Tarang Chawla said. Chawla's siter, Nikita, was killed by her former partner in 2015. 'She was one of the women these numbers speak to,' Chawla said. 'We've known this is a crisis, but now we have the data to back what victim-survivors, families and advocates have been saying for years: this is widespread, and it's preventable.' Study shows father figures matter Emotional abuse was the most common form of intimate partner violence reported in the Ten to Men study, with 32 per cent of men reporting they had made an intimate partner 'feel frightened or anxious', up from 21 per cent in 2013-2014. And around nine per cent of the men reported they had 'hit, slapped, kicked or otherwise physically hurt' an intimate partner. Men with moderate or severe depressive symptoms were 62 per cent times more likely to use intimate partner violence by 2022 compared to those who had not had these symptoms, while men with suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts were 47 per cent times as likely, the study found. The findings of the Ten to Men study not only underscore the extent of the problem — they also offer key lessons for policymakers looking to tackle the issue, clinical epidemiologist and program lead for the study Sean Martin said. While much of the existing research in Australia on intimate partner violence has rightly focused on survivors and their stories, this study takes a new approach by studying perpetrators to better understand how to prevent violence, Martin said. It's the first Australian study to examine how affection in father-son relationships during childhood relate to later use of intimate partner violence. The study found men with higher levels of social support in 2013-2014 were 26 per cent less likely to start using intimate partner violence by 2022, compared to men who had less support. Men with strong father-son relationships were also less likely to become violent. Men who strongly agreed that they had received affection from a father or father figure during childhood were 48 per cent less likely to use intimate partner violence compared to men who strongly disagreed. These findings lend strong support for initiatives to support men's mental health in Australia, as well as community supports and programs for young dads, Martin said. Susan Heward-Belle, a professor at the University of Sydney, said the study shows the importance of fathers modelling respect for women, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion to their children. 'For a very long time, a lot of that emotional, social, nurturance-type work has been seen as women's responsibilities within families.' Heward-Belle, who was not involved in the Ten to Men study, said it is crucial to explore further how feelings of entitlement and anger can develop. 'We also know that there are some men who perpetrate domestic and family violence who arguably have had good relationships with both parents.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
One in three Australian men say they have committed intimate partner violence, study reveals
More than one in three men in Australia reported using violence with an intimate partner in a first of its kind study which shows gender-based abuse is rising, despite years of national attention on the issue. The research was part of a longitudinal study called Ten to Men by Australia's Institute of Family Studies, which began in 2013 and now involves around 24,000 boys and men. Intimate partner violence is defined as emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The study found that the number of men using violence with their partners has risen over the past decade. Last time the survey was conducted in 2013-2014, roughly 1 in 4 (24%) men had committed intimate partner violence. That figure rose to 1 in 3 (35%). That equates to about 120,000 men using intimate partner violence for the first time each year, pointing to a worrying trend in a country which has long grappled with how to combat gender-based violence. In 2022, the Australian government launched its 10-year National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children with a majority priority of advancing gender equality. But since January last year, 100 women have been killed in Australia, according to Counting Dead Women. Recent protests have called for the government to do much more to end gender-based violence. 'The fact that one in three men in the study reported using intimate partner violence should shake every Australian,' said Tarang Chawla, a violence against women advocate and co-founder of Not One More Niki. Chawla's siter, Nikita, was killed by her ex-partner in 2015. 'She was one of the women these numbers speak to,' Chawla said. 'We've known this is a crisis, but now we have the data to back what victim-survivors, families and advocates have been saying for years: this is widespread, and it's preventable.' Emotional abuse was the most common form of intimate partner violence reported in the Ten to Men study, with 32% of men reporting they had made an intimate partner 'feel frightened or anxious,' up from 21% in 2013-2014. And around 9% of the men reported they had 'hit, slapped, kicked or otherwise physically hurt' an intimate partner. Men with moderate or severe depressive symptoms were 62% times more likely to use intimate partner violence by 2022 compared to those who had not had these symptoms, while men with suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts were 47% times as likely, the study found. The findings of the Ten to Men study not only underscore the extent of the problem – they also offer key lessons for policymakers looking to tackle the issue, said Sean Martin, a clinical epidemiologist and program lead for the study. While much of the existing research in Australia on intimate partner violence has rightly focused on survivors and their stories, Martin said, this study takes a new approach by studying perpetrators to better understand how to prevent violence. It's the first Australian study to examine how affection in father-son relationships during childhood relate to later use of intimate partner violence. The study found men with higher levels of social support in 2013-2014 were 26% less likely to start using intimate partner violence by 2022, compared to men who had less support. Men with strong father-son relationships were also less likely to become violent. Men who strongly agreed that they had received affection from a father or father figure during childhood were 48% less likely to use intimate partner violence compared to men who strongly disagreed. These findings lend strong support for initiatives to support men's mental health in Australia, as well as community supports and programs for young dads, Martin said. Susan Heward-Belle, a professor at the University of Sydney, said the study shows the importance of fathers modeling respect for women, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion to their children. 'For a very long time, a lot of that emotional, social, nurturance-type work has been seen as women's responsibilities within families.' Heward-Belle, who was not involved in the Ten to Men study, said it is crucial to explore further how feelings of entitlement and anger can develop. 'We also know that there are some men who perpetrate domestic and family violence who arguably have had good relationships with both parents.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - More moms wish they could stay home — our tax policies should help them
The ongoing fights over tax policy present another opportunity for Republicans to put their best pro-family foot forward. While many important details remain to be hashed out, the initial proposal released by the House Ways and Means Committee indicates that influential Republicans are serious about making sure working families will see a real benefit from the tax talks. A high-profile element in the bill is an expansion of the child tax credit. For those who care about families' well-being, an expansion would be worth celebrating. It recognizes the costs that parents bear in raising the next generation, and helps families with the cost of everything from diapers to groceries. The text proposes a bump in the top-line value of the credit, from its current value of $2,000 to $2,500, before a scheduled drop back down in 2029, at which point it would be indexed for inflation. This would mean that the average middle-class couple with two school-age kids would see an additional $1,000 in tax relief for the remainder of President Trump's term in office. But equally importantly, the credit is a much more egalitarian form of support for families than more targeted tax breaks, such as child care subsidies. The child tax credit respects the fact that different families structure their work and home life in different ways, and that policymakers should appreciate that diversity rather than work against it. In a 2023 poll commissioned by the Institute of Family Studies and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where I work, we asked parents of all walks of life what their 'ideal' work-life balance would look like. On average, fathers tended to say that full-time work was their 'ideal' situation. But mothers expressed a much more wide-ranging set of preferences. Their diversity of views is ill-suited by policy discussions that simply assume most moms share the preferences of the college-educated, high-powered couples that shape much of the policy discussions in D.C. Among moms with kids at home, only 42 percent said their 'ideal' arrangement was to be working full-time. One-third said they would ideally be working part-time and 22 percent said they'd prefer to not be working for pay at all. This was largely consistent among both married and unmarried mothers, but there was a major difference between mothers by educational background. Just under half of all moms with bachelor's degrees or more said they wanted to be working full time, with another 38 percent ideally working part-time. Ten percent of moms with college degrees said they preferred not to work at all for pay. Among moms with just some college education or only a high school diploma, their preferences were dramatically different: 38 percent wanted to be working full-time. Another 30 percent wanted to be working part-time and nearly as many, 28 percent, wanted to be at home with their kids. Too often, in D.C. circles, 'family policy' ends up being written by just one highly educated group with its own narrow set of preferences. This was typified by the Biden administration's proposal to standardize and subsidize child care for families. Child care costs can indeed be eye-bleedingly expensive for parents looking for full-time care in New York City or Washington, D.C. But while the average cost across the U.S. varies, it is often far less than the $40,000-a-year tuition charges that garner headlines. Many parents affirmatively choose part-time day care, or mornings-only preschool, because they want to be able build a work schedule that allows for afternoons at the zoo or story time at the library. (I speak here of what I know.) The only downside in focusing on increasing the top-line value of the child tax credit is that families with moderate to low incomes — particularly those with one parent making the median income and the other staying home raising children — will largely be unable to benefit. For them, tweaks to how the Additional Child Tax Credit is calculated — the rebate families receive if their allowable child tax credit is greater than their federal income tax liability — would be necessary, something Republicans should keep in mind. But in principle, the Ways and Means focus on the child tax credit is a welcome sign that will hopefully remain in the final bill no matter what shape it takes. After all, the tax code's main provision that supports working families however they choose to arrange their work-life balance should be a priority for the coalition that wants to be widely seen as the pro-parent party. Patrick T. Brown is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
18-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
More moms wish they could stay home — our tax policies should help them
The ongoing fights over tax policy present another opportunity for Republicans to put their best pro-family foot forward. While many important details remain to be hashed out, the initial proposal released by the House Ways and Means Committee indicates that influential Republicans are serious about making sure working families will see a real benefit from the tax talks. A high-profile element in the bill is an expansion of the child tax credit. For those who care about families' well-being, an expansion would be worth celebrating. It recognizes the costs that parents bear in raising the next generation, and helps families with the cost of everything from diapers to groceries. The text proposes a bump in the top-line value of the credit, from its current value of $2,000 to $2,500, before a scheduled drop back down in 2029, at which point it would be indexed for inflation. This would mean that the average middle-class couple with two school-age kids would see an additional $1,000 in tax relief for the remainder of President Trump's term in office. But equally importantly, the credit is a much more egalitarian form of support for families than more targeted tax breaks, such as child care subsidies. The child tax credit respects the fact that different families structure their work and home life in different ways, and that policymakers should appreciate that diversity rather than work against it. In a 2023 poll commissioned by the Institute of Family Studies and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where I work, we asked parents of all walks of life what their 'ideal' work-life balance would look like. On average, fathers tended to say that full-time work was their 'ideal' situation. But mothers expressed a much more wide-ranging set of preferences. Their diversity of views is ill-suited by policy discussions that simply assume most moms share the preferences of the college-educated, high-powered couples that shape much of the policy discussions in D.C. Among moms with kids at home, only 42 percent said their 'ideal' arrangement was to be working full-time. One-third said they would ideally be working part-time and 22 percent said they'd prefer to not be working for pay at all. This was largely consistent among both married and unmarried mothers, but there was a major difference between mothers by educational background. Just under half of all moms with bachelor's degrees or more said they wanted to be working full time, with another 38 percent ideally working part-time. Ten percent of moms with college degrees said they preferred not to work at all for pay. Among moms with just some college education or only a high school diploma, their preferences were dramatically different: 38 percent wanted to be working full-time. Another 30 percent wanted to be working part-time and nearly as many, 28 percent, wanted to be at home with their kids. Too often, in D.C. circles, 'family policy' ends up being written by just one highly educated group with its own narrow set of preferences. This was typified by the Biden administration's proposal to standardize and subsidize child care for families. Child care costs can indeed be eye-bleedingly expensive for parents looking for full-time care in New York City or Washington, D.C. But while the average cost across the U.S. varies, it is often far less than the $40,000-a-year tuition charges that garner headlines. Many parents affirmatively choose part-time day care, or mornings-only preschool, because they want to be able build a work schedule that allows for afternoons at the zoo or story time at the library. (I speak here of what I know.) The only downside in focusing on increasing the top-line value of the child tax credit is that families with moderate to low incomes — particularly those with one parent making the median income and the other staying home raising children — will largely be unable to benefit. For them, tweaks to how the Additional Child Tax Credit is calculated — the rebate families receive if their allowable child tax credit is greater than their federal income tax liability — would be necessary, something Republicans should keep in mind. But in principle, the Ways and Means focus on the child tax credit is a welcome sign that will hopefully remain in the final bill no matter what shape it takes. After all, the tax code's main provision that supports working families however they choose to arrange their work-life balance should be a priority for the coalition that wants to be widely seen as the pro-parent party. Patrick T. Brown is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
