Protracted Chains of Violence: How Chronic Conflict and Displacement Structure Intimate Partner Violence at the Thailand-Myanmar Border

Conflict and displacement exacerbate violence against women, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Considering the rising prevalence and duration of conflict-displacement, how violence follows women through chains of related events and contexts, including across generations, demands attention and action. The current study investigates how conflict-displacement contributes to IPV across generations of displacement at the Thailand-Myanmar border, a particularly informative setting for understanding displacement histories. Analyzing survey interview data from 534 women in a population-based survey of two border subdistricts, it investigates evidence of theoretical perspectives informed by trauma, social violence, and social disorganization. Analyses compare IPV and social fear responses by displacement generation, and test potential mediators of IPV differences tied to each theoretical perspective using logistic regression-based effect decomposition. Among first-generation women with more proximate conflict exposure, both legacy effects of past social and individual trauma, and adverse effects of displacement circumstances, emerge. Meanwhile, second-generation women experienced the highest IPV odds, suggesting that violence and displacement have an enduring impact but through mechanisms unmeasured in the current study. Both first- and second-generation women demonstrate navigating everyday violence through social vigilance. Both these groups demonstrate general social fear that aligns with IPV prevalence while also demonstrating individual blunted fear responses to direct victimization, i.e., relatively low reported fear among women with a violent partner, a coping mechanism symptomatic of trauma. Findings warrant greater attention to trauma and structurally violent displacement contexts that persist long term. When unaddressed, these likely exacerbate IPV in ways unexplained by cultural norms, direct conflict, or displacement alone.