The purpose of this qualitative research was to get a deeper understanding of male victim’s experiences when exposed to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) by a female partner. Two men who had been exposed to IPV were interviewed through email correspondence regarding their experiences. To provide a general understanding of the specific difficulties male victims may face from a Western perspective, we have over email and telephone also interviewed three people who work with the issue. The results of this study were analyzed using theories of social psychology and hegemonic masculinity theory. What was stressed throughout the interviews was the importance of abused men to get recognition for being victims of IPV. Our findings showed that stereotypical perceptions of masculinity may affect male victims of IPV in many ways, such as affecting the self-image and hindering help-seeking as well as receiving the proper help services.

This study examined meditative practices among group participants and therapists, participating in the Domestic Violence Focused Couples Treatment (DVFCT) group using the phenomenology and systems frameworks. Specifically, this inquiry explored whether or not group participants and therapists experienced intrapersonal effects as well as relational effects from meditating, both within and outside of session. Little research examines the relational impact of meditating, or the use of meditation as a strategy for helping couples who experienced intimate partner violence. Systems theory and existing research regarding mindfulness meditation contributed to the development of interview questions. Five group participants and four therapists who facilitated the Domestic Violence Focused Couples Treatment group within the last two years were interviewed. The main theme that had emerged from the study were the differences between meditating during session versus out of session for all study participants. In the study, it was noticed that group participants also experienced more relational effects then were noticed by the therapists. While the experience for the therapists and group participants varied, some similarities were found consistently through their interviews. Also included are a discussion of the connections between these themes and the existing literature, the strengths and limitations of this study, and the implications for future research. / Master of Science

In the United States, intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common cause of non-fatal injury for women. The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) is an evidence-based maternal and early childhood health program where nurse home visitors seek to develop therapeutic relationships and provide health promotion interventions with low-income, young pregnant women and first time mothers and their children, from early in pregnancy until the child’s second birthday. In this program, nurses have a responsibility to identify women exposed to abuse and provide supportive interventions. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of this work on nurse home visitors’ professional and personal selves. A secondary qualitative content analysis was conducted using a sample comprised of 27 nurses, 18 community partners, and 4 nurse supervisors from an original case study by Jack et al. (2012) for the development of a nurse home visitation IPV intervention. Conventional content analysis and constant comparative techniques were used to code 8 nurse focus group transcripts and 43 transcripts from face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with the community partners and supervisors. Nurses identify that clients are exposed to multiple types of violence. These experiences increase the complexity of delivering the NFP home visitation program. Nurses also experience high levels of uncertainty related to how to respond to disclosures, and how to address IPV. The presence of IPV also significantly impacts many facets of the nurse-client relationship. At times nurses struggle with wanting to “fix” the client’s relationship with her partner; yet understand this is not a healthy response. Setting boundaries and clearly defining one’s role in this work is complex, and many nurses experience high levels of anxiety, worry and fear for their clients. Supervisors and community members confirm nurses’ experiences but also provide strategies for reflective supervision and community level support. Nurse home visitors are in a unique position to provide care for women exposed to IPV and recommendations are provided for nursing education, practice and research in this field. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

In this thesis I investigate intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in heterosexual relationships by analysing the accounts of women and men in the Anglophone Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Since IPV occurs in the context of a range of abusive practices (Dobash and Dobash 2004) participants' talk on the use and experiences of violent acts, violent threats, as well as other controlling and coercive tactics are examined as part of this study. Analytically, I focus on the points at which discourses of gender converge with narratives of violence. In other words, the current work examines the ways in which participants construct, (re)produce, disturb and/or negotiate gender in their accounts of IPV, and the kinds of power dynamics that are implicated in these verbal performances. I apply a feminist poststructuralist framework to the study of IPV against women. Synthesising feminist theories of gender and power, and poststructuralist insights on language, subjectivity, social processes and institutions, feminist poststructuralism holds that hegemonic discourses of gender are used to subjugate women (Weedon 1997; Gavey 1990). The points at which individuals complicate dominant discursive practices will also be assessed as part of this approach. In-depth interviews conducted with 34 participants - 19 women and 15 men - between 2007 and 2008 are analysed by using a version of discourse analysis (DA) compatible with the feminist poststructuralist framework outlined in the thesis. My analysis begins by highlighting the ways in which narratives of gender inscribe asymmetrical relations of power. The focus then shifts to a comparison of women's and men's accounts on a range of abusive acts. Traditional scripts on gender are often used to police the boundaries of femininities and masculinities, tying these to female and male bodies respectively. This is the context in which control, coercion, violence and violent threats are discussed in these accounts. Understandings of manhood and womanhood also emerge in the analysis of the strategies used to explain violence. I conclude with a summary and discussion of the analysis, and I suggest possible areas for further research on IPV in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Male-perpetrated intimate partner violence (IPV) against women remains as a pervasive and detrimental issue both in the United States and globally. Researchers, counselors, and others often develop psychological measures to help understand the causes of IPV in an effort to prevent this issue from occurring. Debate still persists within IPV research as to the definitive factors that contribute to the perpetration of IPV. The socio-feminist perspective remains as the predominant theoretical basis that drives IPV research and understanding. Despite this, no psychological measure grounded in this theory that predicts IPV perpetration proclivities has been developed and validated to date. The purpose of the current project was to develop and validate a psychological measure that predicts a likelihood to physically abuse a female intimate partner among heterosexual men – the Likelihood to Physically Abuse (LPA) scale. The development of which followed the methods of previously developed and validated measures of likelihood to rape and likelihood to sexually harass. Two studies were conducted that utilized two, independent and samples of adult, English-speaking American men. Study I involved a review of the literature to develop the LPA scale and initial internal reliability testing. Two hundred men were recruited using Qualtrics and were administered the LPA scale online. In Study II, three hundred men were recuited using Qualtrics and were administered the LPA scale along with other measures related to male-perpetrated IPV online. The purpose of the second study was to further test the internal reliability of the LPA scale and test the construct and external validity of this measure. The results from both studies demonstrated good internal reliability and initial evidence for good construct validity of the LPA scale. The LPA scale was concluded to show promising reliability and validity. However, the external validity results require further investigation. Implications for future IPV research and applications, and limitations are discussed.

The aim of this dissertation is to explore the stories of women who have been trapped in abusive relationships (victims of intimate partner violence (IPV)) and the process of how they moved on from these relationships to non-abusive relationships, thereby becoming survivors. The primary research question guiding the study is; How do the women describe their experiences of the processes that they underwent in leaving an abusive relationship and entering into a new, non-abusive, relationship? The study generates a rich description of their experiences, exploring what it is that makes these women unique in changing their identities from victim of abuse to survivor. This is done by taking an in-depth look at each participant’s story and uncovering the personal meanings that they ascribed to these experiences. Literature from past studies is also explored as various authors describe IPV, factors related to IPV and how their illustrations coincide or differ from the findings of this study. A narrative research approach is used in this study. Narrative research falls under the umbrella of postmodernism and is conducted with a social constructionist outlook. The narrative approach views knowledge as generated by exploring subjective experience and how the individual makes meaning with emphasis on context. This study, therefore, focuses on how the participant’s identities are constructed over time as a result of making meaning from their experiences, through self-exploration, social processes and through interactions with others. Data was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews. The tool used for analysis of the stories was the Three-Dimensional Space Approach, the specific tools being; analysis of situation, interaction and continuity. This approach allows for the data to be analysed, not as a given truth but rather, as meaning is generated from the unique perspective of each individual participant in the context, as well as how it was interpreted by myself, the researcher. The results explore this process through the themes of a message from each participant: commitment as it preceded the abuse, identity, control and manipulation at the hands of the perpetrator, and everyone needs someone to help. These themes were then integrated with the literature. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted

Limited data exists on intimate partner violence (IPV) among transgender women (TW), though global trends suggest IPV is associated with HIV risk in this population. We describe the prevalence of verbal, physical, and/or sexual violence as well as participant- and partner-level correlates of IPV among TW in Lima, Peru. Among 389 respondents, 15.2% reported IPV with one or more of their last three sexual partners: 9.2% verbal, 8.2% physical, and 2.3% sexual violence. Physical and verbal violence were more common with stable partners (aPR 3.46, 95% CI 1.17–10.25, aPR 2.46, 95% CI 1.14–5.28, respectively). Physical violence was associated with condomless receptive anal intercourse (cRAI) (aPR 2.22, 95% CI 1.19–4.13) and partner alcohol use (aPR 4.38, 95% CI 1.56–12.33) while verbal violence correlated with participant inebriation (aPR 4.86, 95% CI 1.63–14.46). Our results link IPV with stable partnerships, alcohol use, and cRAI, suggesting TW in Peru may benefit from multidimensional IPV prevention strategies to foster supportive relationships and reduce HIV transmission. / amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research / Revisión por pares

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health issue that transcends cultures and nationalities. Women and men have been impacted by sexual violence through rape and other types of IPV. Each year, women experience IPV before and during pregnancies and are impacted by physical and psychological outcomes as a result. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of IPV on the health outcomes of diabetes (Types 1, 2, and gestational), high blood pressure before pregnancy, and depression/anxiety among adult women before and during pregnancy. The social ecological model provided the framework for this quantitative cross-sectional study that included national data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System between 2012 and 2015. A series of binary logistic regressions was conducted. Findings indicated significant predictive relationships between IPV and diabetes before pregnancy (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.01-1.43), high blood pressure before pregnancy (OR = 1.65, 95% CI =1.47-1.85), and depression/anxiety before and during pregnancy, respectively (OR = 3.14, 95% CI 2.91-3.35 and OR = 9.03, 95% CI 7.37-11.05) after controlling for age, income, and race. A social change implication of this study is that results from this project may assist in increasing societal knowledge of what IPV is and its physical and psychological impacts on women before and during pregnancy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish municipal welfare system, in their capacity as discourse makers, construct Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the relationships of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people. A discourse analysis of their official plans of action regarding IPV and the information directed towards their citizens through their webpages showed that the discourse surrounding IPV revealed a gender dichotomy, where the victim was mainly constructed as being female and the perpetrator as male. As a consequence of this, gay and bisexual men were rendered invisible from the discourse surrounding victims of IPV, although they could be included in the construction of perpetrators of it. Lesbian and bisexual women were often included in the understanding of victims of IPV, but in the discourse surrounding perpetrators of it they were made invisible. The discourse about IPV also excluded the experiences and vulnerability of people who identify as being transgendered. Additionally, the discourse surrounding IPV was characterized by heteronormative assumptions regarding the relationships in which violence is possible. The help defined in the documents included in this study also showed a gender dichotomy in the construction of help directed towards victims and perpetrators of IPV. The relationship between them was also once more understood through heteronormative assumptions. / Denna studie syftar till att undersöka huruvida våld inom hbt-personers nära relationer, samt vem som är utsatt och förövare, synliggörs i kommuners diskurser om partnervåld. En diskursanalys har gjorts av kommuners handlingsplaner mot våld i nära relationer samt av information riktad till utsatta och förövare via deras hemsidor. Resultaten visar på att kommunernas diskurser kring våld i nära relationer karaktäriseras av en dikotom syn på kön hos utsatt och förövare, där våldsutsatt ofta förstods som att vara kvinna och förövare som man. Det gör att det våld som drabbar homo- och bisexuella män till stor del osynliggörs i diskursen. Dessa män kunde dock inkluderas i förståelsen av förövare. Homo- och bisexuella kvinnor kunde ibland inkluderas i förståelsen av våldsutsatt, men dessa kvinnor inkluderades sällan i diskursen kring förövare. Transpersoners utsatthet och upplevelser av våld i nära relationer framkom nästan aldrig i diskursen. Diskursen kring våld i nära relationer dominerandes också av heteronormativa antaganden om vilken slags relation som våld kan förekomma i. Den hjälp som definierades i kommunernas dokument utgick även från en dikotomisk förståelse av genus hos utsatt och förövare, samt heteronormativa antaganden om relationen dem emellan.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major public health issue occuring in the United States and globally. While little is known in general about IPV, understanding about the prevalence of physical IPV among gay men is even more obscure. Scientific literature indicates that harmful lifestyle health behaviors (alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, and risky sexual behaviors) are associated with the increased occurenece of IPV. Intimate Partner Violence in same-sex relationships is often unreported due to society's emphasis on "moral closets" or the fear of potential repercussions. As a result, very few empiracal researches have been conducted on the phenomenon of same-sex partner abuse. this study was conducted to examine the feasibility of enrolling 100 gay men from Atlaqnta into an IPV survey study. The survey was administered via Facebook. Ninety-nine usable surveys were collected. Chi-square tests reveal that being Non-White, using substaces (alcohol, tobacco, and elicit drugs) and non-disclosed orientation staus were all significantly associated with positive IPV reports. Overall, the study sample believes IPV is a health problem in the Atlanta gay community. These findings bear importance for the Atlanta gay community and public health professionals who must address this nearly invisible yet increasing public health issue.