Milestone Moments: Community Violence and Women's Life‐Course Transitions in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala

Abstract

AbstractDeadly violence has drastically increased in Latin America, posing a serious threat to women's sexual and reproductive health. Previous research has documented both increases and declines in youth‐to‐adulthood transitions associated with exposure to violence globally. However, there has been a lack of comparative studies focusing on multiple life‐course transitions. This study investigated the impact of community violence on women's life‐course transitions in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. Drawing on nationally representative surveys and homicide statistics, fixed effects models are employed to estimate the correlation between women's exposure to community violence and the intensity, timing, and sequencing of their critical life events: first cohabitation and childbirth. The results revealed that exposure to violence was associated with an increase in the quantum and tempo of transitions to first cohabitation and birth in Colombia. Competing risk models showed that community violence correlated with the sequencing of cohabitation and birth in the Dominican Republic, as identified by an increase in precohabiting fertility. There was suggestive but inconclusive evidence of an association between community violence and transitions to first birth in Guatemala. In conclusion, community violence indeed predicts women's youth‐to‐adulthood transitions in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and potentially Guatemala, with repercussions for the subsequent life experiences of individuals and entire cohorts.