According to the World Health Organization, one in three women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a partner. Through a number of biological pathways, intimate partner violence (IPV) has a direct effect on women’s health, particularly their sexual health. IPV has been found in numerous bodies of research to disproportionately affect immigrant communities. This literature review examined the prevalence and epidemiological significance of IPV among the Latina and Asian immigrant communities in the United States and the effects on these populations’ sexual health outcomes. My findings demonstrate the burden of this issue is exacerbated by manifestations of structural violence and anti-immigrant sentiments in American society. I found the majority of clinical literature did not factor in structural and systematic disparities such as linguistic barriers, inaccessibility of the health and legal systems, precariousness of citizenship, and shortcomings of public education as contributors to adverse sexual health outcomes. The contexts and circumstances of immigrant women also tend to be homogenized in the public discourse on IPV with little attention paid to the specific socio-cultural elements that shape survivors’ experiences. Lastly, the language employed in the discussion of partner violence is highly hetero-normative and cis-gendered. Partner violence must be treated as the serious public health crisis it is. Strategies to address this issue must be implemented in a timely, culturally, and contextually appropriate manner across all settings guided by an intersectional lens.

Risk for experiencing partner abuse (PA) is high during young adulthood. National estimates of the prevalence of PA among young adults and scholarly literature on the enduring impact of PA highlight the importance of understanding this public health issue. Extant literature has primarily focused on individual risk factors for PA, with much less known about couple relationship dynamics, or the specific typologies of violence these characteristics are associated with. This study used data collected nationally from 3,555 young adult college students living in the U.S. to examine experiences of PA. The purpose of this dissertation study was to (a) provide descriptive information about young adult college students’ experiences of couple relationship dynamics and PA and (b) examine how college students’ individual characteristics, relationship characteristics, and perceived couple relationship dynamics were associated with typologies and forms of PA for males and females. Data were analyzed using univariate, bivariate analyses, and multinomial logistic regressions. Study findings revealed that (a) the individual and relationship characteristics as well as violence experiences of young adults comprising this sample are representative of the characteristics and violence experiences of those identified with other samples of young adult college students living in the US; (b) perceived couple relationship dynamics were differentially related to the main effects of gender, age, year in school, relationship type, relationship duration, and cohabitation status; (c) when controlling for gender, age, and year in school perceived couple relationship dynamic scores varied by the interaction of severity of psychological aggression experienced and perpetrated; (d) perceived couple relationship dynamic scores were differentially related to severity of physical and sexual violence experienced; (e) there are unique characteristics associated with experiences of perpetration-only, victimization-only, and bidirectional violence; (f) there are a number of individual and relationship characteristics and perceived couple relationship dynamic scores that increase the odds of engaging in bidirectional violence for male and female young adult college students in the present study; (g) there are few variables in this model that increase the odds of females being perpetrators-only; and (h) there are few variables in this model that increase odds of males being victims-only. / 10000-01-01

The following study aims to identify the relationship between emotional dependency and intimate partner violence in a sample of women who utilize the psychology service of a national health establishment. A quantitative approach is followed with a comparative associative strategy. The sample consisted of two groups of women, female victims of intimate partner violence (25 women) and women who were not victims of intimate partner violence (26 women). The results suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between the variables of study, since differences between the two study groups was found and it was found that the value assumed correlation coefficient between variables was highly significant. / El siguiente estudio tiene como objetivo identificar la relación entre la dependencia emocional y la violencia de pareja en una muestra conformada por mujeres usuarias del servicio de psicología de un establecimiento de salud nacional. Para esto, se sigue un enfoque cuantitativo y se utiliza una estrategia asociativa comparativa. La muestra estuvo constituida por dos grupos de mujeres, mujeres víctimas de violencia de pareja (25 usuarias) y mujeres que no fueron víctimas de violencia de pareja (26 usuarias). Los resultados sugieren que existe relación estadísticamente significativa entre las variables de estudio, puesto que se encontró diferencias entre los dos grupos de estudio y se halló que el valor que asumió el coeficiente de relación entre las variables fue altamente significativo.

Magister Curationis - MCur / Intimate partner violence (IPV), a form of gender-based violence (GBV), has become one of the emerging serious public health issues. It affects all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and religious groups. Internationally, IPV has also become an increasingly common phenomenon among students at tertiary institutions. In South Africa, there is a paucity of literature that investigates this phenomenon especially among undergraduate student nurses who are supposed to render care to survivors of IPV. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of IPV and factors associated with IPV among undergraduate student nurses at a tertiary institution in the Western Cape.A quantitative, descriptive study was conducted. An adapted version of the WHO’s instrument designed to measure partner violence was used to collect the data. This questionnaire was administered to the eligible respondents after lecture time. The total population consisted of 984 undergraduate student nurses. The printed class lists of the 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-year undergraduate student nurses were used as the sample frame. Stratified random sampling method was used to obtain a sample of 243 respondents to ensure that the sample size was representative of the population. The completed questionnaires were analysed quantitatively by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The results are presented in the form of tables, pie chart and graphs. Spearman’s correlations were used to calculate the strength of the relationship between the dependent variables. Multivariate analysis was done using the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test to determine the associations between the different variables.The results from the study showed that 42% of undergraduate student nurses experienced IPV during their lifetime. The socio-demographic factors associated with IPV were age (p=0.009*), study year level (p=0.001*) and marital status (p=0.021*). The study also found that family history factors like the respondent’s mother’s educational status (p=0.005*), financial support during need (p=0.031*) and witnessing of abuse as a child (p=0.008*) were factors related to IPV. In this study, certain substance use factors such as dagga (p=0.004) and cigarette smoking (p=0.000*), alcohol use in their lifetime (p=0.000*), time elapsed since joining university(p=0.000*) and having male or female friends who drink (p=0.000*) were significantly associated with IPV. The study highlighted the need to raise awareness on IPV among undergraduate student nurses.

Background: Violence against women carried out by a partner with whom they have a close relationship is a major problem in our society.  Here, violence is defined as a violent act of a physical, psychological or sexual nature. The violent act carried out against the woman inflicts injury and suffering, regardless of whether the act of violence is committed publicly or at home. When a woman is subjected to violence by a person with whom she has a close relationship, a gradual normalization process takes place. This means that the woman gradually starts to accept acts of abuse and assault that she previously would never have tolerated. Literature on experiences made by health workers show that there is not sufficient guidance and guidelines for health workers on how to best treat women who have been subjected to violence. Violence against women leads to significant costs to society. An estimation puts the annual cost at around 2,7 to 3,3 billion Swedish Krona (SEK). However, it is difficult to assess the exact sum, as women due to fear and the normalization process of abuse, not always state the true reason for seeking health care and treatment.     Aim: The purpose was to examine abused women’s experiences of health care.     Method: The literary review was conducted in accordance with the Friberg method (2012). Our work is based on ten scientific articles. We have used the Cinahl Complete and PubMed databases in our research. The articles have been analysed and the quality has been controlled.     Results: The result of our literary review has been presented in four different categories: The significance of confirmation; When violence is ignored; Women’s feelings of guilt, shame and abandonment; and The significance of the environment and surroundings.     Discussion: The result has been discussed with Katie Eriksson’s care theory as a starting point, along with some of her concepts of consensus: suffering, the individual and health. Women subjected to abuse experienced flawed and deficient health care. The health workers’ lack of knowledge of violence in close relationships also meant that abused women were not viewed from a holistic perspective by the health workers. / Bakgrund: Våld mot kvinnor som utövas av en partner de står i nära relation till är ett stort samhällsproblem. Våld definieras som en fysiskt, psykiskt och sexuellt relaterad våldshandling. Våldet innebär skada eller lidande för kvinnan oavsett om det sker offentligt eller privat. När en kvinna blir utsatt för våld av en närstående sker successivt en normaliseringsprocess vilket betyder att kvinnan börjar acceptera händelser hon tidigare inte skulle ha gjort. Litteratur om sjuksköterskors erfarenheter visar att det saknas vägledning och riktlinjer för hur de ska bemöta våldsutsatta kvinnor. Samhället har stora kostnader för våld mot kvinnor. Uppskattningsvis ligger kostnaderna mellan 2,7 – 3,3 miljarder kronor per år. Dessa siffror är svåra att beräkna eftersom kvinnor på grund av rädsla och att våldet normaliserats inte alltid uppger den verkliga orsaken till kontakten med sjukvården. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka hur kvinnor som varit utsatta för våld i nära relationer upplever vården. Metod: Denna litteraturöversikt utfördes i enlighet med Friberg (2012). Tio stycken vetenskapliga artiklar ligger till grund för arbetets resultat. Databaserna Cinahl Complete och PubMed har använts. Artiklarna har analyserats och kvalitetsgranskats. Resultat: Litteraturöversiktens resultat har redovisats i fyra kategorier: betydelsen av att bli bekräftad, när våldet ignoreras, kvinnornas upplevelser av skuld, skam och övergivenhet, samt miljöns och omgivningens betydelse. Diskussion: Resultatet har diskuterats utifrån Katie Erikssons omvårdnadsteori med några av hennes konsensusbegrepp; lidande, människa och hälsa. Våldsutsatta kvinnor upplevde brister inom vården. Vårdpersonalens kunskapsbrist om våld i nära relationer bidrog till att kvinnor inte uppmärksammas ur ett helhetsperspektiv.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health concern in the United States and around the world, with adolescents and emerging and young adults most at-risk for IPV. Early experiences of IPV have far-reaching, immediate negative effects on individual health and developmental outcomes. There is a small body of research on the impact of IPV on young adults’ vocational outcomes and the links between these two factors. This study utilized prospective, longitudinal data collected nationally from 1,386 individuals to examine how IPV experiences during adolescence impact IPV experiences, depression, and substance use problems during emerging adulthood and vocational outcomes during young adulthood. It was hypothesized that (a) IPV victimization during adolescence will be associated with vocational outcomes during young adulthood; (b) IPV experiences, depression and substance use problems during emerging adulthood would mediate the relationship between IPV victimization during adolescence and vocational outcomes during young adulthood; (c) there would be a positive association between depression and substance use problems during emerging adulthood; and (d) there would be a positive association between educational attainment and employment status during young adulthood. Path analyses were performed using a Structural Equation Modeling framework to test study hypotheses. Study findings revealed that adolescent IPV victimization significantly predicted emerging adult IPV victimization, reciprocal IPV and depression, and young adult educational attainment. Emerging adult depression and reciprocal IPV mediated adolescent IPV victimization and young adult vocational outcomes. Depression and substance use problems during emerging adulthood and educational attainment and employment status during young adulthood were significantly associated. The present study provides support for the developmental cascading risks of IPV on individuals’ development over time. This study adds to the dearth of empirical research showing a relationship between early IPV experiences and vocational development for young adult men and women and the importance of assessing for different types of IPV experiences and the differential impact on mental health and vocational outcomes, for women and men, across time. These findings support the importance of identifying key mediating factors and time points that may be targeted to interrupt the accumulation of IPV risk from adolescence into young adulthood.

abstract: The question of how to reduce the recidivism rates among IPV offenders is one that plagues criminologists to this day. Though a difficult issue to address, educational treatment programs have started to gain popularity as one idea to achieve this reduction. By examining the dataset from the “Domestic Violence Experiment in King's County (Brooklyn), New York, 1995-1997,” conducted by Robert C. Davis et al. (2000), it was found that the results of the educational program showed a great promise in reducing recidivism rates. Though it is important to focus on and analyze the results from this study, it is also important to extrapolate from them by running and examining specific models and variables with the dataset. Focusing on specific variables within the dataset allows researchers to find different themes and results in smaller ideologies of research, versus trying to find one overall answer on how to reduce recidivism. By examining specific variables such as length of relationship, I wonder how length of relationship between an IPV offender and victim impact recidivism rates? This thesis will discuss IPV history and theoretical perspectives, history of educational programs, length of relationship, and the dataset conducted by Davis et al. (2000). This thesis examines how the likelihood of IPV recidivism is effected by length of relationship, the different length of treatment programs (overall, eight-week, or twenty-six-weeks), and the interaction between length of relationship and the different treatment programs. The results show overall that length of relationship slightly decreases the rate of recidivism for IPV. When length of relationship is ran in the models with the separate treatment programs, it is found that the overall treatment and twenty-six-week programs have drastic and significant reduction results on recidivism, but that the eight-week program actually increases recidivism rates slightly. The results also indicate that when examining the interaction between length of relationship and the different treatment programs, length of relationship slightly moderates the reduction of the recidivism rates for the individuals enrolled in the overall treatment and eight-week programs, but slightly increases the rates for those in the twenty-six-week program. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2016

abstract: Female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are at increased risk for negative sexual health outcomes, such as susceptibility to HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, miscarriage, and cervical cancer. Despite this known risk, HIV risk reduction interventions are lacking in IPV content, and little is known about women’s protective sexual health behaviors in this context. The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a deeper understanding of women’s sexual health within the context of a violent intimate relationship. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-person interviews with women who had experienced IPV (N = 28). Service-seeking women were recruited from a domestic violence shelter and a domestic violence counseling program; non-service-seeking women were recruited through a statewide coalition against domestic violence and online advertisements. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed in NVivo Qualitative Software (Version 10). Detailed process notes, analytic memos, peer debriefing, and the use of visual analytic displays were used to increase the trustworthiness of findings. Results are presented in chapters two, three, and four. Chapter two explores women’s experiences of sexual violence in IPV relationships. Women described how their intimate partners used a combination of sexual abuse, sexual coercion, and sexual assault as a unique weapon of power and control. Chapter three examines women’s sexual risks across the levels of their ecological environment using an intersectional feminist framework. Women’s sexual risks went beyond sexual violence and were influenced by subtle yet pervasive cultural gender norms that reduced their power in relation to their male sexual partners. Chapter four focuses on understanding women’s protective sexual health behaviors in order to inform the development of an intervention that follows women’s natural pathway to care as they heal from victimization to surviving to thriving. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Social Work 2016

abstract: Previous research indicates that survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) are at a greater risk of developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. IPV survivors often use maladaptive coping strategies in response to IPV that place them at a higher risk for PTSD. Cultural gender roles/beliefs have been known to influence coping methods. Marianismo, a Latino/a gender role belief, has not been investigated in relation to IPV, coping strategies, and PTSD among Latinas. This study examined whether physical, psychological, or sexual abuse by a romantic partner, coping strategies, and Marianismo were associated with PTSD symptomatology among 157 college-aged Latinas. The participants completed an on-line survey that assessed IPV frequency, disengaged and engaged coping, Marianismo, and PTSD symptomatology. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that, regardless of IPV type, more IPV and disengaged coping strategies were the best predictors of PTSD symptomatology. Marianismo did not significantly moderate the relation between coping and PTSD. However, the strong zero-order correlation between disengaged coping and Marianismo indicated they were highly correlated variables. The study findings are consistent with previous research that suggested that coping strategies are culturally dependent on beliefs and gender role expectations. Latinas may use more disengaged coping strategies because these methods may be deemed more culturally appropriate and reflect Marianismo beliefs. Psychologists working with Latina IPV survivors need to develop culturally sensitive approaches to psychoeducation on IPV and coping strategies that empower these women within their cultural belief systems and reduce their PTSD symptomatology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2017

This literature review updates evidence about intimate partner violence in dating relationships, revealing a particular phenomenon, emphasizing issues such as the prevalence for both sexes, which according to various reviewed studies may range from 0.8% for sexual violence to 98% for psychological aggression. Factors associated with abuse or early sexual initiation, temporal extent of the relationship, role of parents and peers, among others; and the consequences as dropouts: teenage pregnancy, eating disorders, victimization and expression of anger primarily in men, etc. are anayzed. This review demonstrates that this phenomenon has certain peculiarities that justify a more targeted research particularly during adolescence. / La presente revisión bibliográfica actualiza evidencia en torno a la violencia de pareja en relaciones de noviazgo, mostrándolo como un fenómeno particular, enfatizando aspectos como la prevalencia, para ambos sexos, que según lo expuesto en los distintos estudios revisados puede oscilar desde un 0.8% para la violencia sexual hasta un 98% para la agresión psicológica; factores asociados como abuso o iniciación sexual precoz, extensión temporal de la relación, rol de los padres y de los pares, entre otros y las consecuencias tales como: deserción esco- lar, embarazo precoz, trastornos alimentarios, victimización y expresión de rabia esto último fundamentalmente en los hombres. Se demuestra cómo el fenómeno presenta ciertas singularidades que justifican investigación más focalizada en particular durante la adolescencia.