Journal of Family Violence最新文献

Purpose: Intimate partner aggression (IPA) increased after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation (VSA) model, the current study examined associations among emotion regulation (ER) difficulties (an enduring vulnerability), COVID stress (a current stressor), alcohol use (a maladaptive coping strategy), and physical, psychological, and cyber IPA perpetration during the first eight months of the pandemic.

Method: Participants were 215 college students in current relationships from three universities across the US.

Results: Results of generalized linear models controlling for pre-COVID IPA perpetration showed a main effect of ER difficulties on physical IPA perpetration (b = .56, p < .001), an ER difficulties X COVID stress X alcohol use interaction on psychological IPA perpetration (b = .01, p = .03), and an ER difficulties X COVID stress interaction on cyber IPA perpetration (b = -.02, p = .02). Specifically, when ER difficulties and alcohol use were low, individuals with high levels of COVID stress were at higher risk of perpetrating psychological IPA relative to individuals with low levels of COVID stress. However, the association between COVID stress and psychological IPA perpetration was not statistically significant when ER difficulties and alcohol use were high. Similarly, when ER difficulties were low, individuals with high levels of COVID stress were at higher risk for perpetrating cyber IPA relative to individuals with low levels of COVID stress. However, when ER difficulties were high, the association between COVID stress and cyber IPA perpetration was not statistically significant.

Conclusions: The current findings tentatively implicate COVID stress as a critical correlate of IPA perpetration and suggest that individuals who have fewer existing vulnerabilities (i.e., ER difficulties) and maladaptive processes (i.e., alcohol use) should not be overlooked.

Purpose

Safety planning is often recommended for stalking victims, yet there has been limited research on personal safety planning in general and specifically for stalking victims. This study has two overall objectives: (1) to examine whether frequency of safety scenario planning (thinking through various strategies in responding to threatening situations) among ex-partner stalking victims is associated with increased personal safety worry, safety efficacy, and other safety behaviors (e.g., seeking safety advice, carrying a safety device); and (2) to explore associations of frequency of safety scenario planning with partner abuse and stalking experiences, help-seeking, and mental health symptoms.

Method

Women stalking victims were recruited from Prolific. Three groups were developed for comparisons including stalking victims who: (a) did not engage in safety scenario planning in the past year (n = 121); (b) engaged in one safety scenario planning activity in the past year (n = 256); and (c) engaged in 2 or more safety scenario planning activities in the past year (n = 184).

Results

Bivariate results found that frequency of safety scenario planning was associated with increased personal safety worry, increased seeking and giving safety advice, and increased defensive safety behaviors. Additionally, the multivariate analysis found more frequent safety scenario planning was uniquely and significantly associated with increased personal safety worry, safety efficacy, work interference, the number of different help-seeking sources, PTSD symptoms, and sexual discomfort.

Conclusions

More research is needed to provide information about best practices in safety planning to better help victims manage the short- and long-term consequences of violence exposure in their recovery journey.

Purpose

Much attention has been devoted to the ways in which women have made sense of, worked through, coped with, and recovered from Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), but the insights of survivors affiliated with religious minorities are scarce. The purpose of this study is to advance understandings and practices concerning the coping experiences of Ultraorthodox women (UJW) survivors of IPV. Using descriptive phenomenological methodology, in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 Ultraorthodox Israeli women who identified themselves as survivors of IPV.

Methods

The research design and data analysis were inspired by a phenomenological approach to document, analyze, and understand these women’s subjective experiences on this heretofore under-studied topic. Shenton’s four criteria were assessed to promote the current study’s rigor and trustworthiness.

Results

Thematic analysis revealed three core themes and seven related sub-themes: (1) Devoting time to spiritual activities (sub-themes: daily prayers and attending Jewish classes); (2) Finding inspiration in a role model (sub-themes: a woman who survived IPV, a well-appreciated rabbi); and, (3) Planning the future (sub-themes: commitment to a new project, helping other women to cope with IPV, and commitment to the future and well-being of their children).

Conclusions

An integrative synthesis of the findings reveals two distinctive forms of coping: spiritual-based and practical-based coping strategies, that demonstrate the survivors’ multifaceted perceptions and coping narrative with IPV. The strengths and limitations of this study are addressed along with implications for practice and theory.

Purpose

To understand court decisions in custody cases involving allegations of domestic violence, a qualitative study was conducted among Portuguese family court magistrates.

Methods

A nonprobabilistic snowball sampling process, which involved six judges from Portuguese family courts who were authorized by the Superior Magistrate’s Court to participate in an interview, was used to construct the sample.

Results

When the data were analyzed, three main themes emerged, namely, the characteristics of the processes, the factors considered in the judicial decisions, and the impact of shared custody. The results also revealed several legal and extralegal aspects that influence judicial decisions, such as the characteristics of the violence, the mediation process, and the status attributed to victims, suggesting that there are objective and subjective factors in the perpetuation of violence.

Conclusions

Allegations of domestic violence in custody proceedings are not uncommon, and these allegations can complicate the process and delay a decision. Efforts by one parent to restrict contact with the other parent raise suspicions of attempted alienation that tend to undermine the risk assessment. There can also be overreliance on shared custody, potentially undermining children’s safety. The negative impacts of exposure to domestic violence and the instrumentalization of children are recognized, but it is questionable whether they are being prevented to the extent advocated by the Istanbul Convention. The effectiveness of communication between criminal and family courts is also debatable, despite its importance for protecting victims.

Purpose

In this Brief Report, we prospectively examined associations between intimate partner violence (IPV) experiences early in the COVID-19 pandemic with later depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and modifiable health factors, among men.

Methods

Using observational data from 1,083 men in the United States from the Growing Up Today Study who participated in a 2020–2021 COVID-19 substudy, we examined associations between IPV exposure and health outcomes later in the pandemic: depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms, sleep duration, reduced sleep quality, decreased physical activity, increased alcohol use, and use of substances to cope with stress.

Results

IPV exposure was associated with increased mental health symptoms (OR_depression = 1.56 [1.36, 1.80], OR_anxiety = 1.30 [1.15, 1.47], OR_PTSS = 1.28 [1.14, 1.45]). Associations between IPV exposure and modifiable health factors were mixed, weak associations were observed for poorer sleep quality (OR = 1.23 [1.08, 1.41]) and increased use of substances to cope stress (OR = 1.19 [1.04, 1.36]).

Conclusions

The health impacts of IPV victimization on men are understudied. In times of collective stress, IPV screening is needed and increased awareness that men seeking help for mental health symptoms, sleep, or substance use may have exposure to IPV.

Purpose

This article addresses a gap in empirical knowledge on post-separation contact in the context of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) for children with disabilities. The intersection of disability and DVA is explored through the mother’s perspective and brings to the fore the unique experiences of children with disabilities in the post-separation contact space.

Methods

Known to be a difficult to reach population, the experience of disabled children were captured through in-depth qualitative interviews with a sample of eight victim/survivor mothers. Mothers were recruited through gatekeepers from a voluntary children’s organization and specialist DVA services. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was the most common disability occurring in the sample.

Results

Three major themes relating to the disabled child’s experience were identified: (i) Courts’ (lack of) consideration of children’s disability in post-separation child contact decision-making; (ii) Disruption to routine; and (iii) Quality of contact. Participating mothers reported that these experiences caused serious emotional distress for the children; distress that was heightened and compounded by their disability status.

Conclusion

Applying an intersectional lens to the experiences of children with a disability who live with DVA, this study simultaneously illuminates children’s vulnerability and marginalization in this context, whilst also identifying gaps in policy and practice responses to identify and address the individual needs of these children. Lastly, given the nascent evidence base on this topic, research which directly elicits the voice of the child is urgently needed.

Purpose

Although the intimate partner violence (IPV) help-seeking literature has expanded, limited research examines help-seeking patterns utilizing a broad range of strategies. We examined classes of help-seeking strategies using the Intimate Partner Violence Strategy Index, which includes 39 help-seeking strategies in six categories: formal (e.g., stayed in shelter, called a hotline) and informal networks (e.g., talked to family, friends), legal assistance (e.g., called police, filed charges), safety planning behaviors (e.g., hid money or keys), and resistance (e.g., fought back, ended the relationship) and placating (e.g., tried to keep things quiet, avoided him) tactics.

Methods

The sample included 150 women who experienced IPV and sought civil legal services. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify strategy use classes and examined differences in class membership by sociodemographics and IPV experiences.

Results

The LCA identified four classes: High Strategy Use (36% of the sample), Moderate Strategy Use-Resistance Focused (25%), Moderate Strategy Use-Placating Focused (25%), and Low Strategy Use (14%). Women in the High Strategy Use class used an average of 27.35 strategies across all six categories. Women in each Moderate Use class reported high strategy use in one category (i.e., resistance or placating). Women in the Low Strategy Use class used an average of 11.67 strategies with very few safety planning strategies. Class membership was not associated with sociodemographic variables. Women in the High Use Strategy class reported the most frequent and severe IPV.

Conclusions

Examining help-seeking patterns provides comprehensive views of how women cope with violence and can yield tailored interventions.

Purpose

This qualitative study explored Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the Israeli Jewish Ultra-Orthodox (JUO) community to better understand the cultural and religious risk factors and features underlying IPV in this under-researched sector.

Method

Semi-structured interviews implementing the Clinical Ethnographic Narrative Interviews approach were conducted with 15 JUO women currently living with or separated/divorced from their abusive partners who were victims of IPV. The interviews were analyzed using the Interpretive Phenomenological approach.

Results

Two key themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme involves the normalization and exacerbation of violence due to specific religious and societal norms that perpetuate silence and stigma. Factors such as early marriage, religious beliefs about the sanctity of marriage, disadvantaged childhood experiences, and distorted religious justifications contributed to the victims’ vulnerability and hindered their ability to seek help.

The second theme is related to the specific features of the abuse. It covers a range of tactics employed by husbands, including financial oppression, social isolation, physical violence, and manipulation during pregnancy, all based on and justified by distorted religious concepts.

Conclusions

Though aspects of intergenerational abuse and control tactics to aggravate violence are common universal strategies in IPV, the findings here underscore the interplay between religious practices and societal expectations within the JUO community that contribute to the perpetration and perpetuation of IPV. These findings contribute to a better understanding of IPV in religious and traditional contexts and highlight the importance of tailoring interventions to address the needs of specific collectivistic and religious-based societies.

Purpose

To investigate massage therapists’ attitudes, consultation processes, and confidence to respond to situations involving domestic and family violence (DFV) in clinical practice.

Methods

An online survey-based study was conducted and Australian massage therapists, 18 years of age or over were recruited. The survey included 64 questions in 3 sections: 1) Demographics, 2) Recognize Family and Domestic Violence, and 3) Respond to domestic and family violence with 4 subsections; i) disclosures, ii) referrals, iii) further education, and iv) final comments.

Results

Two-hundred and seventeen respondents were included in the analysis. Knowledge about DFV, having a client disclose DFV and confidence to manage a disclosure, were all significantly higher with massage therapists with a personal experience of DFV. The main qualitative theme was antithetical attitudes with two subthemes: a) not in my world: I’d be enormously surprised that a person in an abusive environment would come in for a massage, b) in my world: I want to be prepared.

Conclusion

Having personal experience of DFV significantly impacted the way that respondents felt about and managed DFV in their clinic. Several massage therapists’ who had no personal experience of DFV demonstrated a lack of knowledge about DFV and less confidence to respond to it in their clinic. It is important to upskill and educate massage therapists, particularly those with no personal experience, to improve their confidence to have discussions around DFV and to respond to DFV disclosures.

Purpose

In this cohort analyses, we sought to estimate the longer-term efficacy of a high-school based bystander intervention to reduce gender-based violence (GBV) into young adulthood.

Methods

Seniors were recruited from 23 of 26 high schools that participated in the original RCT (2010–2014) designed to test the effectiveness of a bystander intervention to reduce GBV. Of 3,389 high school seniors who completed an electronic survey in their last term, 1,986 complete at least one annual follow up survey through 2018 (58.6% retention). Receipt of bystander training was defined based on (1) the high school the participant attended (‘as randomized’ in the original RCT) and (2) participants’ report of additional bystander training received after high school (‘as reported’). The primary GBV outcomes were sexual violence perpetration and victimization rates (%) for the past 12 months.

Results

Only at the final follow up were significant reductions in sexual violence perpetration (SVP) noted for the ‘as randomized’ analyses. Self-reported SVP rates were 38% lower (adjusted rate ratio = 0.62; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.48–0.81) among 1,107 participants who had attended schools randomized to the bystander intervention (SVP = 2.1%: 95% CI; 1.6–2.9) relative to 877 participants who had attended control schools (SVP = 3.4%; 95% CI: 3.0-3.9). Receipt of additional bystander training after high school was not associated with lower rates of any GBV form when compared with participants receiving no bystander training in or after high school.

Conclusions

Bystander training was not consistently associated with longer-term reductions in GBV perpetration nor victimization in this prospective cohort study based on a large school-based RCT.