Physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) are deleterious to the physical and mental health of romantic partners and their children, yet both forms of aggression continue to be prevalent even when couples become pregnant with their first child. This study aimed to investigate the factors contributing to IPV in couples experiencing the transition to parenthood. A community sample of 98 heterosexual couples undergoing the transition to parenthood was recruited from Victoria, BC. Couples self-reported levels of depressive symptomatology, attachment anxiety and avoidance, relationship satisfaction, and frequency of physical and psychological IPV perpetration and victimization. Men with greater attachment anxiety perpetrated both forms of IPV at a higher rate than men with lower levels of anxiety. Women with greater depressive symptoms were more psychologically aggressive towards their partners. Women who were more depressed, or more anxiously or avoidantly attached were less satisfied with their relationships, and decreased satisfaction was in turn related to greater perpetration of physical and psychological aggression. Women’s relationship satisfaction mediated the effects of their depressive symptoms and attachment anxiety and avoidance on their perpetration of psychological IPV, and the effects of their attachment insecurity on their perpetration of physical IPV. Relationship satisfaction did not mediate these associations for men. Men’s avoidance did not moderate the association between women’s anxiety and men’s and women’s IPV perpetration; a model with genders reversed testing the moderating effect of women’s avoidance on the association between men’s anxiety and men’s and women’s IPV perpetration was also not significant. Men’s anxiety also predicted women’s psychological IPV perpetration, controlling for their own anxiety and psychological victimization. The results illuminate the ways in which men and women may be affected differently by the factors contributing to risk for violence during the transition to parenthood. Implications for prenatal interventions targeting depression, attachment insecurity, and relationship satisfaction in order to reduce the risk of IPV are discussed. / Graduate / 0622 / 0451 / lisagou@uvic.ca

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine nurses experiences of asking patients aboutintimate partner violence and what the nurses believed could be of help or hindrance whenasking the question. Method: The study design was qualitative. Nine nurses from four different divisions wasinterviewed. The participants worked at a Swedish university hospital with an action plan fortaking care of violated women. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews usingan interview guide. The results were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Main result: The question about intimate partner violence raises a variety of feelings amongnurses, for example anger and empathy. When the question is asked, nurses describe bothaggravating and facilitative factors. Some of the nurses had experience of regularly askingpatients about violence, while others only ask of suspicion. Nurses enter both aggravating andfacilitators to ask the question of violence. These factors may be related to the nurse herself,such ignorance/knowledge on the topic intimate partner violence. Operational factors includelack of routine of asking the question, or that there are keywords for documentation ofviolence in the patient record. Examples of factors related to the patient may be the prejudicesthat some groups of patients are not exposed or that the nurse suspects that violence is presentin the patient. Conclusion: The nurses mentioned several different obstacles to asking the question aboutintimate partner violence, but also helping factors. Several of the interviewed nurses do notknow the hospital's action plan on taking care of abused women, which says that all patientsshould be asked about violence. This is likely to affect the extent to which the question isbeing asked by the nurses. / Syfte: Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av attfråga patienter om våld i nära relation och vad sjuksköterskorna ansåg vara till hjälp ellerhinder för detta. Metod: En kvalitativ studie genomfördes. Nio sjuksköterskor från fyra olika avdelningarintervjuades. Deltagarna arbetade vid ett svenskt universitetssjukhus med en handlingsplan föromhändertagande av våldsutsatta kvinnor. Data samlades in genom semistruktureradeintervjuer med hjälp av en intervjuguide. Resultatet analyserades med kvalitativinnehållsanalys. Huvudresultat: Att fråga patienter om våld väcker en rad känslor hos sjuksköterskor där alltifrån ilska till empati har beskrivits. Några av sjuksköterskorna hade stor erfarenhet av attregelbundet ställa frågan om våld till patienter, medan andra enbart frågar då misstankeföreligger. Sjuksköterskorna anger både försvårande och underlättande faktorer för att ställafrågan om våld. Dessa faktorer kan vara relaterade till sjuksköterskan själv, exempelvisokunskap/kunskap om ämnet våld i nära relation. Verksamhetsrelaterade faktorer kan varaavsaknad av rutin för att ställa frågan eller att det finns sökord för dokumentation av våld ijournalsystemet. Exempel på faktorer relaterade till patienten kan vara fördomar att vissapatientgrupper inte är utsatta eller misstanke om att våld föreligger hos patienten. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskorna angav flera olika hinder för att ställa frågan om våld, mensamtidigt hjälpande faktorer för detta. Flera av de intervjuade sjuksköterskorna känner intetill sjukhusets handlingsplan om omhändertagande av våldsutsatta kvinnor, vilken säger attalla patienter ska tillfrågas. Detta kan sannolikt påverka i vilken utsträckning frågan omvåldsutsatthet ställs.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. School of Criminal Justice, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 7, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-155). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Directed by Jacquelyn White; submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 12, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-36).

The primary purpose of this study was to explore how intimate partner conflict changes over time. Patterns of conflict were explored based on the presence of substance use, name calling/threats, physical violence, jealousy, and conflict topic. Groups, or classes of couples, were identified based on conflict patterns. Next, the effects of the covariates on group membership were examined. Age, relationship length, intimate partner violence, substance use, and depression were investigated as covariates. Participants in this study included young couples from the Oregon Youth Study-Couples Study that included men who were at risk for delinquency and their women partners. The men and their partners were assessed at three waves between the ages of 25 and 31. Proximal contextual aspects of conflict, including substance use, threats and yelling, physical violence, and jealousy, were explored at three time points. Results suggest that conflict patterns change over time based on age and stage of relationship. Further, conflict patterns differ for men and women and the covariates predicted classes for men but were not predictive for women.

This dissertation examines the role of US legal and administrative institutions in intimate partner violence (IPV) against immigrant women in two instances treated as separate in policy and scholarship: 1) women seeking asylum in the US on account of IPV and 2) immigrant women facing IPV in the US. Through an analysis of congressional hearings, relevant policies and administration, court cases, and interviews with employees at non-governmental organizations that serve immigrant women, this dissertation analyzes the ways in which immigration law intersects with ameliorative policy intended to address IPV in these contexts. In so doing, I develop a broader understanding of how state institutions, policy frameworks, and policy implementation shape the lives of vulnerable immigrant women. Contrary to scholarship that views relevant policies and institutions in the US as well-meaning though inadequate, this dissertation examines the extent to which the state may be directly implicated in IPV against immigrant women and in fostering institutional conditions under which this violence continues to thrive.

In emerging adulthood, the developmental period between ages 18 and 25, romantic relationships last longer and become more intimate and serious. This developmental period also marks the peak of intimate partner violence (IPV) rates across the lifespan. Individuals in this age group also rely on technology more heavily than other age groups, and use this technology as another means by which to perpetrate IPV. The current thesis investigated the impacts of victimization by such technological IPV (tIPV), as well as the importance of technology-related factors in the perpetration of tIPV. Two hundred and seventy-eight (204 female, 74 male) participants in an intimate relationship of at least three months completed an online survey. Participants reported on their perpetration of and victimization by in-person and tIPV as well as on a range of victim impacts and technology-related perpetration factors. Experiencing tIPV victimization was related to increased alcohol use for both men and women, and increased fear of partner for women. For depression, perceived stress, relationship satisfaction, quality of life, social support, and post-traumatic stress, tIPV victimization did not predict impacts above in-person victimization. The amount of technology usage as well as the amount of technological disinhibition both uniquely predicted tIPV perpetration, counter to the hypothesis that technological disinhibition would moderate the relationship between technology usage and tIPV perpetration. In-person IPV perpetration also significantly predicted tIPV perpetration, and when these variables were included, technology usage was no longer significant. Upon further investigation, social media use, but not texting, significantly predicted tIPV perpetration. While these results suggest some unique impacts and contributing factors to tIPV, overall these results highlight that tIPV often occurs within a broader pattern of abuse that includes in-person IPV. These results suggest that tIPV, while a new medium of aggression, is not necessarily distinct from in-person IPV. This means that efforts should be made to integrate tIPV into IPV theory and practice, rather than to create a new field of research and practice based solely around tIPV. / Graduate

In my dissertation, I use multi-ethnographic methods to examine how mediators talk about, manage, and process families going through divorce. I show how a dominant narrative about marriage and the cultural expectations of parenthood provide a framework for mediators to manage the discourse of divorcing parties so assets and care giving can be split 50/50. The dominant P.E.A.C.E. narrative (P=parenting plan, E=equitable distribution, A=alimony, C=child support, E=everything else) restricts available discourse in mediation and guides mediators’ behaviors in ways that homogenize families by providing a linear formula for mediators to follow which results in only certain stories being allowed to enter the mediation. Next, I show how constructions about power and violence serve to frame and shape understandings of divorce for mediators, thereby guiding their actions in mediation and discursively impacting the discourses of mediated parties. Power and violence are constructed in ways that conflate the concepts, and no clear protocol is offered to manage these complicated concerns for family law mediators. The outcome is mediators report being unsure and often fearful about mediating cases where intimate partner violence is a concern. Finally, an analytic autoethnographic examination of family law mediation provides an example of the power of ideology and makes clear my positionality within this dissertation. I explore my own identity as a white, heterosexual, female, in a world ripe with expectations about marriage and family creation as I encounter alternative messages and information in my fieldwork. Throughout my dissertation, I uncover larger cultural narratives about marriage, and families that guide and manage people, illustrating the ways identities, stories of violence, and the ideology of marriage are shaped.

Wikstrӧm’s Situational Action Theory (SAT) proposes a general theory of crime causation that addresses two sets of interactions between individuals and their situation/environment. These interactions predict whether or not individuals choose a criminal action. The current study utilized self-report data on intimate partner violence collected at a large urban university in Florida (n=1124) to test this process by examining both direct and interactive effects proposed by the theory. Specifically, this study examines the direct effects of moral propensity, temptations/provocations, self-control and perpetual deterrence on intimate partner violence as well as the various interactions among them as derived from the theory. This study is the first complete test of SAT to date.

M.A. / Domestic abuse is a global and growing problem (World Health Organization WHO, 2002). The extent and magnitude, as well as effects of domestic abuse are, however, underreported especially within South Africa (Prinsloo, 2007). Awareness has been raised by initiatives such as Sixteen Days of Activism on Violence Against Women campaigns driven by POWA (People Opposed to Women Abuse), yet the rates of abuse stay alarming. In light of the occurrence of abuse as well as the limited resources available, some women kill an intimate partner after a prolonged period of abuse. The specific aim of the study was to uncover the psychological factors that contribute or are associated with the killing of an abusive partner by women. This was done by using multiple case studies and unstructured interviews. Participants were sourced from the Department of Correctional Service in the Western Cape Province. The participants utilised for the research included three women who killed their abusive intimate partner, and who were incarcerated at Pollsmoor Correctional Facility at the time of the interview. In-depth interviews were conducted and the data was analysed in order to derive themes. Once the themes were established, results were compared to relevant research in the field as a means to establish the psychological factors associated with women who kill an abusive intimate male partner. 5 The results indicated that certain primary psychological factors present in the sample group of interviewed women namely: development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, experiences of coercive control, interrelational conflict and substance abuse. Secondary themes or factors found included cultural perceptions and a lack of resources. From the results obtained, a conclusion was made that women who kill an abusive intimate male partner, are often compelled to do so due to underlying factors and as a means of survival. Furthermore, culture appears to have a prominent influence as it informs the manner and acceptable means to deal with domestic abuse. Although the research contributes to the pool of knowledge regarding women who kill an abusive intimate male partner in South Africa, more is needed especially in the development of intervention programs and support.