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This paper aims to analyze conflict resolution strategies among individuals who encountered disputes with family, neighbors, workmates, businesses, strangers, government authorities or other members in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applying a difference-in-difference approach by sex, the authors use a representative panel of adults living in 82 cities from across Mexico to measure changes in antisocial strategies (violence) and prosocial strategies (non-confrontational methods and dialogue) to resolve disputes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, men reduced their use of violence by 19.6% while women did so by 17.4%. There was a parallel rise in non-confrontational strategies used to solve conflicts equal to 73.6% for men and 62% for women. The use of dialogue as a tool for resolving disputes increased by more in cities that banned the sale of alcohol. Alternative Twitter data corroborates the main findings, suggesting that individuals are becoming more prosocial during the pandemic.

To the knowledge, this is the first empirical study to analyze changes in strategies for conflict resolution as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating how individuals adapt their dispute strategies under extraordinary circumstances such as a pandemic, with a focus on a middle-income setting.

Purpose: The evidence regarding the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence is mixed. Studies using hotline call services identify an increase on domestic violence, while studies using police reports find a decrease. One limitation is that most of these studies came from diverse regions using different types of data sources. The purpose of this study is to use two separate data sources to study this question in the same region, and to contribute to the discussion for potential mechanisms that explain this mixed evidence.

Methodology: This study estimates the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence in Mexico City. The authors use two separate data sources: hotline calls and official police reports. Our empirically strategy is based on a difference-in-differences methodology and an event-study design.

Findings: As a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown, hotline calls for psychological domestic violence increase by 17%, while police reports of domestic violence decrease by 22%. To reconcile these discrepancies between hotline calls and police reports, the authors consider several potential mechanisms. The authors find suggestive evidence that the increase in psychological domestic violence is related to financial stress. Further, the results of this study indicate that the reduction in police reports is related to women facing more barriers to report their abusive intimate partners during the lockdown.

Value: These results confirm that the variation observed in the existing literature is related to the type of data being used. The mixed evidence suggests that more women suffer from psychological domestic violence as captured by hotline calls, while women encounter more barriers to report their abusive husbands to the police as captured by the official police reports.