Public Awareness of Anti-Violence against Women and Children Law in Tagum City: Basis for Information Dissemination Plan

Abstract

Purpose: This quantitative study intended to investigate people's awareness regarding RA 9262, the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, and to propose an intervention based on the study results. Materials and Methods: There were 384 respondents selected through stratified sampling who answered the standardized survey questionnaires. The respondents were 18 years old and above and randomly picked. Furthermore, the research design in this study was quantitative, non-experimental, and descriptive-correlational. After the collection of data, responses were encoded for data analysis. Mean and Standard Deviation statistics described the respondents' awareness of the protection, liability, physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, penalties, and protective measures of RA 9262. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) determined the significance of the difference between variables. Findings: The mean and standard deviation showed high respondents' awareness of all the salient provisions of RA 9262: subject of protection, subject to liability, physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, economic violence penalties, and protective measures. The ANOVA results revealed significant differences in people's awareness of RA 9262 by age, marital status, educational attainment, employment status, and the number of years living together. Those with better awareness of the said law are the 42 to 49-year-olds, married, with higher educational attainments, with higher employment status, and with a partner for more than ten years. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study offered intervention strategies to increase awareness of the A-VAWC law at the community level. The local government unit of Tagum City may target awareness-raising and education campaigns to reach those groups with lower levels of awareness and understanding. Future researchers may investigate other factors that influence awareness and understanding of RA 9262 among different demographic groups. Policy makers may also include updating of gender and development related laws to improve proposed intervention strategies.