The current study explored the association between sexual minorities’ experiences in schools and relationships. Socio-political-psychological theory provided a framework for the exploration of how retrospective reports of sexual orientation violence in school (SOVS) and school environment predicted the experience and perpetration of sexual minority intimate partner violence (SMIPV). Because of its relation to both school and interpersonal violence, alcohol was also hypothesized to predict rates of experiencing and perpetrating SMIPV. Group differences for all scales were explored on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, race/ethnicity, and education. Chi-square and analysis of variance analyses revealed several significant differences. Logistic regressions revealed that the experience of SOVS was not found to significantly affect the risk of experiencing or perpetrating SMIPV. However, a negative school environment was found to affect the risk of experiencing and perpetrating SMIPV differentially by gender and race, respectively. Results also revealed that alcohol significantly predicted the perpetration of SMIPV.

Victim offender overlap is a relatively new area of research with most studies having focused on applying this concept to the study of assault and homicide. Research in intimate partner violence has found that there exists a group of victim offenders or individuals who are involved in initiating, sustaining, and engaging in intimate partner violence as both victims and offenders (Johnson & Ferraro, 2000; Steinmetz, 1980). This Master’s thesis explored the concept of victim offender overlap in connection to intimate partner violence (IPV). Bivariate analyses were conducted using Paul C. Friday, Vivian Lord, M. Lyn Exum, and Jennifer L. Hartman’s (2003-2005) data, Evaluating the Impact of a Specialized Domestic Violence Police Unit in Charlotte, North Carolina. The findings suggest that there is a separate group of individuals involved in intimate partner violence who are both victims and offenders. Furthermore, the three groups (offenders only of IPV, victims only of IPV, and victim/offenders of IPV) were found to be different across gender, past criminal involvement, and future criminal activity as predicted. Suggestions for future research and the implications of the findings are discussed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed January 5, 2010). PDF text: vi, 179 p. : ill. ; 770 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3360088. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (February 17, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-37)

Bakgrund: Mörkertalet bland kvinnor som utsätts för våld i nära relationer befaras vara stort då våldet ofta sker i det privata. Våldet kan vara en kombination av fysiskt, psykiskt och sexuellt våld. Detta samhällsproblem är också ett folkhälsoproblem då det ger uttryck i en sämre hälsa. Våldet kan bidra till fysiska, psykiska samt psykosomatiska besvär och sjukvården har en betydande roll i att identifiera dessa kvinnor. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturöversikten var att belysa hur kvinnor som utsätts för våld i nära relationer upplever bemötandet från sjukvården. Metod: En litteraturöversikt enligt Friberg (2012) har genomförts och grundar sig på tolv vetenskapliga originalartiklar. Artiklar har hämtats från databaserna CINAHL Complete och PubMed. Resultat: Litteraturöversiktens resultat har redovisats i två huvudkategorier med tillhörande subkategorier. Första huvudkategorin Upplevelsen av mötet i sjukvården beskriver kvinnornas upplevelser och intryck i mötet med sjukvården. Andra huvudkategorin Att lyfta frågan om våld belyser kvinnornas känslomässiga upplevelser, hur de upplever sjukvårdspersonalens förhållningssätt samt vilka råd de önskade att sjukvårdspersonalen kände till. Diskussion: Resultatet diskuterades med Joyce Travelbees omvårdnadsteori och konsensusbegreppet vårdande som utgångspunkt. Kvinnorna upplevde främst ett bristfälligt bemötande från sjukvården då de uttryckte en önskan om ökad empati, förståelse samt tålamod från sjukvårdspersonalen. Sjukvårdspersonalens bristande kunskap inom området våldsutsatthet bidrog till att de inte uppmärksammade kvinnorna ur ett helhetsperspektiv. / Background: The number of unrecorded cases among women exposed to intimate partner violence is feared to be large, since violence often takes place in the private sphere. The violence can be a combination of physical, psychological and sexual violence. This social problem is also a public health issue, since it leads to worse health among the exposed women. The violence may cause physical, psychological and psychosomatic disorders. Due to this, health care has an important role in order to identify these women. Aim: The aim of the literature review was to illuminate how women exposed to intimate partner violence experience the hospitality of health care. Method: Suggested by Friberg (2012), a literature review has been implemented which is based upon twelve original scientific articles. The articles were collected from the databases CINAHL Complete and PubMed. Results: The result has been presented into two main categories with associated subcategories. First main category, Experience of meeting the health care, describes women's experiences and impressions of meeting the health care. The second main category, To illuminate the issue of violence, highlights women’s emotional experience. In other words, how they experience the approach among the health care professionals' as well as their wished advice from the nursing staff. Discussions: The result was discussed with Joyce Travelbee’s theory of nursing and the concept of caring. Women experienced a defective treatment from the health care and expressed a desire of greater empathy, understanding and patience from the health care. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the field of violence victimization among the health care professionals´, which leads to that they do not observe the women from a holistic perspective.

This study provided a comprehensive picture of the lives of young adolescents (ages 12-14) and their mothers residing in emergency family violence shelters. It used qualitative Life Story methods emphasizing a holistic, contextualized, chronological approach to gain deeper insight into experiences as told from the emic perspectives of individuals who have lived them, with research questions addressing relationships, intimate partner violence (IPV), coping, and views of the future. The study was prompted by the prevalence of childhood exposure to adult IPV with 15.5 million American children/adolescents exposed annually, the risks of IPV exposure, and the paucity of first-person perspectives in existing research. Research focusing on adolescents is especially lacking. The study was informed by social cognitive and family systems theories and an ecological/resilience framework. An ethnically diverse, purposive sample of 14 young adolescent-mother dyads (N= 27) was recruited from four Texas shelters. Youth and mothers were interviewed separately using a semi-structured interview guide. They completed standardized measures of IPV exposure level and youth psychological adjustment. Interviews were analyzed using thematic and categorical-content analysis. Four staff interviews at recruitment sites added context. Results revealed high levels of IPV exposure, poverty, parental incarceration, child maltreatment, residential instability, school transitions and maternal health problems. Seven themes were prominent in youths’ life stories, with the most prevalent concerning lifelong frequent moves, highly cohesive family boundaries, and loss and fear. Other themes concerned evolution in youths’ thinking about family issues, complex feelings about adult males, centrality of physical child abuse, and the influence of parental crack cocaine abuse in their lives. Numerous quotes voice participants’ strengths in spite of adversities. Youth typically framed experiences in terms of how they affected daily living, with IPV interwoven with the broader themes. Youth described key relationships, perceptions of fathers, general coping strategies, situational coping with IPV (including safety planning behaviors), perspectives on shelters, potential protective factors, and views of the future. Mothers’ interviews expanded interpretation of youth narratives. Results compare youth-mother perspectives. Implications are discussed for theory, research, and social work practice, including practice in emergency shelters, schools, substance abuse treatment programs, law enforcement and CPS. / text

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In view of the lack of a culture-specific tool to measure psychological maltreatment comprehensively in Chinese women, this research study aims to validate the Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI) for Chinese women. The validation was conducted in two phases: (a) preparation of the Revised Chinese PMWI and (b) full psychometric testing of the questionnaire. In the preparation phase, the PMWI was first revised taking into account the possible cultural differences between Chinese and non-Chinese women. In addition, given the changing nature of psychological maltreatment with the advent of mobile digital devices, supplementary items were added to keep the instrument in line with the expanding scope of this phenomenon. The revised PMWI included 67 items after revision, and was translated into Chinese by two bilingual translators using forward and back translation. The Revised Chinese PMWI was reviewed by a panel of intimate partner violence (IPV) experts in Hong Kong for the relevance of items to Chinese women, resulting in the scale-level content validity index of 0.94, which indicated the content validity was satisfactory. After adjustment of items based on the experts’ opinions, cognitive debriefing was conducted with a sample of 10 Chinese women to confirm the comprehensibility of the Revised Chinese PMWI by the target population. The last step in the preparation phase was assessment of test-retest reliability of the questionnaire among 37 Chinese women with a 2-week interval, which was shown to be satisfactory with an intraclass correlation coefficient over 0.95. The second phase of the validation process was the full psychometric testing of the Revised Chinese PMWI. The validation study included 1198 Chinese women who had been in intimate relationships during the preceding 12 months. Based on exploratory factor analysis, the questionnaire was reduced to 49 items. The test revealed two factors as the original English version, emotional-verbal and dominance-isolation, which were further verified by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, known-groups validity was demonstrated by significant differences in scores between women recruited from different places (shelter as opposed to community center) and with different abuse histories (abused in past year, not abused but in distressed in relationships, or not abused in satisfactory relationships). Moreover, convergent validity was established through moderate-to-strong correlations of the Revised Chinese PMWI with measures assessing other forms of IPV, controlling behaviors, marital satisfaction, and depression. Trivial correlation with unrelated demographic variables (number of children and education level) indicated discriminant validity. Regarding reliability, the Revised Chinese PMWI showed good internal consistency. Cronbach’s alpha for each subscale ranged from 0.947 to 0.966 and was 0.975 for the entire tool. The use of the comprehensive validation procedures in the present study provided evidence for both cultural appropriateness and satisfactory psychometric properties of the Revised Chinese PMWI. It shows promise as a useful instrument in research and clinical practice to measure the experience of psychological maltreatment in intimate relationships in Chinese women. / published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Increases in the proportion of older people in Canada have focussed needed attention on the issues and concerns for this group. One prevalent issue is the nature of experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) for older adults. These experiences have been overlooked in the domestic violence theory and research where the focus has been on the needs of younger women and also within the elder abuse research and literature where the emphasis has been placed on aging (dementia) and caregiving. As a result, less is known about the experiences of older adults in intimate relationships and how the power and control dynamics manifest and shift within the context of long-term relationships. How do these dynamics change or remain the same in intimate relationships of older adults? How do the victims resist the violent and controlling tactics of perpetrators and how does this resistance influence and shift the nature of power and control in these intimate relationships? Using techniques borrowed from grounded theory, this study was undertaken with the aim of exploring power and control dynamics in intimate relationships of older adults in long-term abusive relationships. The findings demonstrated by the victims reported that their partners used different forms of violent tactics in the early years of these intimate relationships and typically used more nonviolent coercive controlling tactics in later years. In some of the relationships, control continued past the period of separation and divorce. Victims presented themselves as active agents and demonstrated resistance that was more overt in the early years, which became more subtle and discreet as these relationships matured. For victims, resisting their partners’ efforts to control them provided them with some momentary power in the relationship; however, the participants’ control was mostly situation-specific and temporary. For victims who were still living with their abusive partners, resistance allowed them to set boundaries with their partners and provided them with some space of their own within their relationships to engage in activities of their choice. These boundaries, however, are under constant scrutiny by the abusive partners and although victims demonstrate resistance to assert their dignity, the overarching control continued to be with the abusive partner. Narratives also provided by the participants also demonstrated the impacts of intimate partner violence to their sense of health and well-being. / October 2015

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects millions of women, men, and families throughout the world each year, with more than a million incidents of domestic partner abuse reported to law enforcement officials each year in the United States. Being able to accurately assess and help a woman who is experiencing this type of violence can be difficult for even a seasoned mental health or medical professional. The purpose of this study was to determine whether clinicians can gain insight into the personality structure of women who have experienced IPV by clinical interview and administration of the Rorschach alone. This study analyzed the Rorschach responses of 52 participants: 26 participants who had experienced violence and 26 who had not. The relationship between the Rorschach responses and variables was then analyzed using a series of ANOVAs. Results of this study indicated that there were significant differences in morbid content scores (MOR) and aggressive content scores (AG) in the women who had experienced intimate partner violence compared to women who had not. This may be significant in that women who have experienced partner violence may see more morbidity and aggressiveness in their everyday lives or from a neutral stimulus. This study may impact social change by bringing attention to an understudied population in order to increase awareness of this issue. In being able to link a woman's response patterns on the Rorschach to her personality traits and ultimately her behavior in abusive relationships, it is anticipated that it will be possible for clinicians to personalize treatment plans to a specific woman's needs and personality to increase the probability that she will leave an abusive situation.