Introduction: Sexual misconduct is a pervasive and deleterious issue within military contexts. Commonly cited psychological sequelae of sexual assault include anxiety, depression, suicidality, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as interpersonal relationship functioning issues. The experience of military sexual trauma (MST) is unique in that the environment in which the harm occurs, the culture, plays a significant role in the impact of the harm on survivors. MST is often also related to feelings of institutional betrayal and moral injury. While clinical treatment of interpersonal trauma history is common, there is a lack of research regarding the development and efficacy of clinical interventions used with couples affected by MST. The objective of the thesis is to examine how dimensions and impacts of MST affect intimate partner relationships. Methods: A multi-method qualitative approach was taken in the thesis, including a scoping review and two narrative reviews, contextualized using primary qualitative data in the conclusion chapter. Results: MST affects dimensions of intimate partner relationships including communication, trust and attachment, intimacy, conflict, aggression, as well as sexual function and satisfaction. The present work highlights the unique considerations for those affected by MST, suggesting that the relationship between adverse psychological outcomes, such as PTSD, and relationship distress appears to be greater for military than among civilian populations. While clinical work aims to amplify positive outcomes within couple relationships, and reduce individual symptomatology, there exists a lack of interventions tailored to meet the needs of couples affected by MST specifically. Discussion: The present thesis contributes to the growing understanding of how MST affects intimate partner relationships, as researchers and clinicians continue to seek to improve supports available for military members. The work is an appropriate start to inspire and inform future research, identifying existing gaps in the literature spurring on forthcoming work that aims to improve the wellbeing of military-connected intimate partner relationships. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The present thesis explores how military sexual trauma may affect intimate partner relationships. The work highlights how the literature discusses and describes the link between sexual assault that occurs in the military, posttraumatic stress disorder, and intimate partner relationships. In addition, the work explores concepts related to the experience of sexual assault in the military, such as betrayal, guilt, shame, as well as military culture. The thesis also identifies and summarizes information about therapeutic interventions being used with couples who are affected by military sexual trauma. The present body of work contributes to the growing understanding of how military sexual trauma affects intimate relationships and survivors, while also informing research, clinical services, and policymakers who are making meaningful change in the health and wellbeing of military members and their partners.

A thesis submitted to the school of graduate studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree doctor of philosophy. / Experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with a wide range of mental and physical health conditions that often have profound and enduring consequences in the lives of people, families and communities who are affected. Evidence suggests that many of these health concerns can be mitigated with timely access to medical care which addresses patient safety and needs for support. This has led to health policymakers framing IPV as a “health issue” which physicians are uniquely situated to address. Previous research suggests, however, that many physicians are ill-equipped to respond to patients who have experienced IPV, giving rise to questions about how physicians learn about IPV in the course of their training and how this training might be enhanced in order to improve medical care for people affected by IPV. This dissertation is comprised of three original studies that lie at the nexus of health policy and health professions education scholarship. The first study combines environmental scanning and critical discourse analysis to examine how physicians’ roles related to IPV are represented in training resources created for a Canadian medical audience. The second study uses qualitative description to identify physicians’ perceptions of their own roles in caring for patients affected by IPV and highlights the sites and sources of insight that are impactful in shaping these perceptions. The third study integrates key informant technique and interpretive description to synthesize recommendations from stakeholders outside of medicine about physicians’ roles in addressing IPV, and opportunities to improve medical education and practice in the future. Together, these studies offer a critical perspective on broader implications of constructing IPV as a “health issue” that informs practice for physicians, medical educators, researchers, policymakers, and organizers working to improve health care for people affected by IPV. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / People who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are at a higher risk of experiencing a wide range of serious and long-lasting health issues. Politicians and other policymakers framing IPV as a “health issue” have suggested that doctors are well-placed to address these concerns and to support patients who are dealing with IPV, but research suggests that many doctors lack knowledge or skills that are needed to address IPV with appropriate sensitivity. This dissertation examines how doctors learn about IPV in the course of their medical training by 1) analyzing how doctors’ roles related to IPV are presented in educational resources and policy documents, 2) interviewing doctors about their perceptions of IPV and their related training, and 3) talking to people who do work related to IPV outside of medicine about their suggestions for improving medical education in the future. Taken together, the studies that make up this dissertation can help to inform educators, politicians, and other policymakers working to improve health care for people affected by IPV.

This study assesses the contextual aspect of working in a family business on intimate relationships. Guided by principles of ecological theory, this study explores the unique situation of individuals who work with an intimate partner in a business they own and how this situation manifests itself in their close relationship. Individuals in a family business are confronted with a potentially unique family-work experience, especially for spouses/partners who work together in a business. It is hypothesized that objective and subjective work time influence couple relationship quality. Six specific hypotheses centered on the connection between family and work microsystems as well as the influence of macrosystem beliefs regarding family, work, and gender were assessed by regression analysis. Ninety-nine individuals completed a demographic and daily diary online. The sample was 52.53% men, 78.79% White, and educated (63.63% held at least Bachelor degrees). The majority of the sample was legally married (91.92%), with an average relationship length of 16.20 years (SD = 12.74 years). Regression analyses revealed limited support for the hypotheses. For people in family businesses, working more hours was associated with greater withdrawal from their intimate partner. Perceiving work time as sad was linked to more withdrawal from partner and more anger with partner, but not linked with feelings of closeness to partner. People who felt time at work as appreciated reported feeling closer to their intimate partner. The more respondents believed it was meaningful to distinguish between work and family, the less closeness to their partner they reported. Finally, age was significant for relationship quality, with younger individuals reporting more withdrawal and anger with partner and less closeness to their partner than did older individuals. This study contributes to research exploring the connection between family and work among individuals who work together in family businesses. While objective work time was associated with the measure of withdrawal from a partner, objective work time did not significantly contribute to the report of anger with a partner or closeness to a partner. Overall, how individuals felt during work time had an effect on their spousal/partner relationship, with feeling sad at work associated with more relationship withdrawal and anger, and feeling appreciated at work associated with more closeness. Limited support for the model suggests there may be unique processes of work and family operating within family businesses. Although work and family microsystems were connected in this study of family business owners, the links between work and family were different from previous research on dual- and single-earner families. Future research should untangle the processes through which work and family and time are connected, with attention to larger cultural influences, particularly how individuals within family businesses do work and family and how families ascribe to and enact gender within family businesses. In addition, further research should assess the degree to which microsystems can be differentiated in populations characterized by an extreme mesosystem connection between work and family. / Ph. D.

This study has explored how couples raising children on the autism spectrum negotiate intimacy in their marriages/committed partnerships as well as what contextual factors influence these process and how they change over time. Twelve couples currently raising children on the autism spectrum were interviewed conjointly regarding their experiences of intimacy negotiation. A methodological approached based on constructivist grounded theory was used to analyze the data collected from these couples. The results of this study indicate that intimacy negotiation for couples raising children on the autism spectrum is an interactive process in which both partners must work together to make several key cognitive and relational shifts. Couples were either aided or hindered in making these shifts by the degree to which contextual and environmental factors were experienced as resources or roadblocks. The result of the degree to which couples raising children with ASDs navigate the necessary cognitive and relational shifts, also taking into account the influence of any contextual factors on these processes, was found to be a couple's experience of intimacy. However, this study also found that intimacy was not a fixed point at which a couple one day arrived, but was instead an iterative process taking place over time and requiring work to develop and maintain. / Ph. D.

The notion of good living when related to habitation is, particularly in the United States, often associated with houses or apartments of large square footage. This demand for large spaces leads to compromises in architectural integrity and construction quality. In an architectural sense, good living is not directly related to the quantity of space. In this thesis, I argue that spatial quantity does not necessarily improve people's lives. Additionally, an excess of space often leads to investments in superficial conventions and products which can be associated with a consumer driven iconic representation of good living. At closer examination, most of these goods and products are disconnected from the most essential qualities of life and contribute little to the quality of our human relations. From an environmental standpoint, large under-used spaces require a larger footprint, i.e. larger parcels of land, with a greater consumption of construction materials and increased maintenance and energy demands over the extended "life" of a house. In this thesis work I will attempt to search for unique and substantial qualities within a house that is designed to be of a very small square footage. The design philosophy for A Very Small House has, at its core, only the most essential qualities of domestic space. For the personal life of the inhabitant: a refined place to cook, a refined place to bathe, a refined place to sleep. For the life of the inhabitant as a member of a family or a community: a refined place to gather and a refined place to extend. I use the word refined in this context to mean: very subtle, precise, or exact. A means of ennobling an act or a space / Master of Architecture

Bakgrund I dagens samhälle förekommer det våld mot män i nära relationer. Arbetet belyser att mäns utsatthet för våld i heterosexuella och homosexuella relationer är ett otillräckligt utforskat område. Sjuksköterskans roll är att identifiera samt hjälpa de drabbade männen. Syfte Studiens syfte var att A) Undersöka hur våldet som utförs av kvinnor mot män eller mellan män i samkönade relationer beskrivs i litteraturen. B) Hur den våldsutsatta mannens möte med vården ser ut och vilka konsekvenser våldet kan ge. Samt C) Undersöka var hjälpen finns för en  våldsutsatt man i Europa och USA. Metod Studien är en litteraturstudie där  artiklar söktes med hjälp databaserna PubMed, och SCOPUS. Sökord som användes var exempelvis: “Intimatepartner violence”; among men; Gay. 33 artiklar valdes men 19 föll bort på grund av att de inte matchade inklusionkriterierna. De 14 artiklar som återstod granskades med två kvalitetsgranskningsmallar för att bedöma artiklarnas kvalitet i studien. Beauchamps och Childress teori om vårdens fyra etiska principer har används som teoretisk referensram. Resultat  Våldet som män och kvinnor utsätts för skiljer sig inte åt. Bemötande av män som lider av intimt partnervåld (IPV) är viktigt för att få män att dela med sig av sin situation. Många män i samkönade relationer önskar att vårdpersonal ställde frågan om våld. Många söker inte hjälp på grund av misstro till myndigheterna eller på grund av rädslan för diskriminering. Slutsats Hälso- och sjukvården i Sverige är idag inte tillräckligt anpassad för att kunna hjälpa de män som lider av intimt partnervåld. Mer studier och framförallt mer utbildning för sjukvårdspersonal behövs idag för att de män som söker hjälp ska kunna få den, utan rädsla för diskriminering. / Background In todays society there is an occurence of violence against men in intimate relationships. This essay focuses on mens exposure to violence in hetero- and homosexual relationships and the fact that it is an insufficiently studied area. The nurses role is to identify and help the affected men. Bakgrund I dagens samhälle förekommer det våld mot män i nära relationer. Arbetet belyser att mäns utsatthet för våld i heterosexuella och homosexuella relationer är ett otillräckligt utforskat område. Sjuksköterskans roll är att identifiera samt hjälpa de drabbade männen. Aim The aim of this study was A) to investigate how the violence perpetrated by women or between men i same-sex relationships is described in the literature. B) to inviestigate how the vulnerable mens meeting with the health care is and which consequenses the violence has.  C) to investigate where help is available for vulnerable men in Europe and the US. Method The method of the study was a literature review. Articles were searched using the databases PubMed and SCOPUS. With keywords such as; “Intimatepartner violence”; Among men; Gay. Prior to the search, 33 articles were chosen, 19 of them were excluded due to not matching the inclusioncriteria. the 14 remaining articles were quality reviewed using two templates to acess the quality of the studies. Beauchamp and Childress’  Principles for biomedical ethics were used as a theoretical referenceframe. Result The violence that men and women are subjected to is not different. Attitude of health personnel towards men suffering from intimate partner violence (IPV) is important to get men to open up about their situation, many men in same-sex relationships wish health workers would ask them about violence. Many do not seek help due to distrust of the authorities or due to fear of discrimination. Conclusion Health services in Sweden are not sufficiently adapted to help men suffering from intimate partner violence. More studies, and especially more training for health care professionals is needed. So that the men who seek help are able to get it, without fear of discrimination.

This dissertation examines the influence of competing risks in shaping individuals' choices about potential intimate relationships. According to Ulrich Beck's "risk society" theory, the individualization of social risks has direct and measurable consequences for the ways people organize and evaluate potential intimate relationships (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1995, 2002, 2004; Giddens, 1994; Lupton, 2006). This study investigates the ways in which subjective or identity-related risks hypothesized by scholars of late modernity shape the perception and the actual risk of dating violence. Empirical research on dating violence identifies many objective “risk factors” related to a person’s chances of experiencing intimate partner violence; however studies investigating perceptions of dating risk from the subject’s perspective sometimes reveal more personal concerns and priorities. To date, no intimate partner violence research explicitly utilizes a conceptualization of risk informed by risk society theories. The present study explores the potential for utilizing risk society concepts in explaining the relationships between perceptions of instrumental risks and identity-related risks, and how these risk perceptions may impact involvement in dating violence.

In this paper-based thesis, I describe the findings of my ethnographic research conducted among the intimate partners of female sex workers and adolescent boys in Northern Karnataka. By highlighting the contradictory and relational nature of masculinity, my study aims to contribute to the larger scholarship on masculinity in South Asia. In the first manuscript, I examine the intimate partners’ perceptions and practices to shed light on the common occurrence of intimate partner violence and how local ideologies of manhood—and the social and structural conditions that shape these ideologies—perpetuate intimate partner violence. In an attempt to destabilize hierarchical gender orders, the second manuscript builds on Connell’s theory of “hegemonic masculinity” by developing the notion of incipient masculinity. From a public health perspective, the findings of these studies are expected to inform the ongoing structural interventions in Northern Karnataka that aim to prevent violence against female sex workers. / October 2016

Using data from the Chicago Homicide Dataset for years 1988-1992 and the Chicago Community Area Demographics, multiple regression and mediation analysis are used to examine various community level factors’ impact on Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) rates per Chicago community area. The relationship between the percentage of non-white and IPH rate per Chicago community area is significant and positive, but disappears once economic strain is taken into account, as well as when family disruption is included in the model. There is a weak, but positive relationship between population density and IPH rates, but neither economic strain nor family disruption mediates the relationship between population density and IPH rates. Economic deprivation is positively related to IPH rates, but economic strain and family disruption partially mediate the relationship between economic deprivation and IPH rates. Finally, the relationship between the percentage of males aged 30-59 and IPH rates per community area in Chicago is moderately negative, but this relationship disappears once economic strain is accounted for in the model. However, family disruption does not mediate the relationship between the percentage of males aged 30-59 and IPH rates. These results indicate that some structural covariates impact IPH rates and that some relationships are mediated by economic strain and family disruption. These results also lend support to a modified approach to general strain theory (GST). More research is necessary to validate these results.

abstract: In spite of numerous legal interventions and a fairly strong legal capacity compared to other neighboring countries, Zimbabwean law enforcement and judiciary have failed to overcome Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). This research examines the role of customary law in the continued prevalence of IPV among Zimbabwean women, particularly, the subtle ways in which customary law legitimates the ideals of patriarchal domination in the communal and legal handling of IPV cases. The study utilized qualitative methodology in the form of structured interviews as well as pre-interview questionnaires. Eighteen women who identified as IPV survivors or victims were recruited using snowball sampling method whereby each person interviewed was asked to suggest additional people who were either present victims or survivors of IPV. Five lawyers from Chinhoyi, ten lawyers from Harare, ten police officers from Chinhoyi and ten police officers from Harare were identified using judgement or purposive sampling where subjects are chosen due to availability. The research established that IPV is a way in which abusers exercise their assumed patriarchal rights over women. Likewise, police officers are also influenced by attitudes and mentalities acquired from customary law in the way they handle IPV cases which resultantly leads to secondary victimization of IPV victims. The research concluded that much work still needs to be done by the judiciary, law enforcement and the community to combat the prevalence of IPV in Zimbabwe. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2019