Assessing intimate partner violence in incarcerated women

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric qualities of a screening instrument for intimate partner violence, the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), for use with incarcerated women. Principal components factor analysis was conducted on data collected from 149 incarcerated women. The ISA demonstrated excellent internal consistency with this population and appears to be a psychometrically sound instrument that can be given in a short period of time.     

Survival of intimate partner violence as experienced by women

Aims and objectives. The study set out to describe women's experiences of intimate partner violence, the consequences of such violence, the help they received and women's experiences of their survival. Background. Social and health professionals do not have sufficient ability to identify and help families who suffer from intimate partner violence. Methods for identifying and treating partner violence not have been developed adequately. Method. The study was conducted in Finland by loosely formulated open‐ended interviews with seven battered women. The data were analysed by inductive qualitative content analysis. Findings. Women had past experience of maltreatment and a distressing climate at their parental home. Women experienced both themselves and their spouse as having weak identities; their ideals, patterns of marriage and sexuality were different. Violence occurred in situations of disagreement. Women tried to strike a balance between independence and dependence in the relationship. The different forms of couple violence were interlinked. The women sought help when their health and social relationships got worse. An awareness of the problem, taking action, counselling and social relationships helped them survive. Religiousness was a factor that involved commitment to the couple relationship, made religious demands on women and promoted the recovery of integrity. Conclusions. Intimate partner violence was associated with the family model, childhood experience of maltreatment, the partners’ weak identity and conflicts between individualism and familism. Social and healthcare professionals need competence in early intervention and skills to discuss moral principles, sexuality, and violence in a way that is free of prejudice and condemning attitudes. Spiritual approaches in the context of interventions should be taken into consideration. Relevance to clinical practice. In a clinical context, nurses should be aware of the symptoms of violence, and they should have skills in dealing with intimate moral and spiritual issues.     

Cross-cultural factors in disclosure of intimate partner violence: an integrated review

Title.  Cross-cultural factors in disclosure of intimate partner violence: an integrated review.
Aim.  This paper is a report of an integrated review to identify cross-cultural factors that have an impact on women's disclosure of intimate partner violence, specifically related to Mexican-American women.
Background.  Intimate partner violence was once recognized as a private matter. Disclosure is a complex concept; furthermore in our multi-cultural society, a woman's decision whether or not to disclose abuse can be attributed to several factors influenced by her culture.
Data sources.  The World Wide Web and multiple databases including Academic Premier, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsychArticles, PsychInfo, Medline, Eric, MedicLatina, and Psychology and Behavioral Science Collection were searched for studies published between 1996 and 2007.
Methods.  A search was conducted using databases including the CINAHL, PsychINFO, MEDLINE, ERIC and MedicLatina. Both qualitative and quantitative studies published between May 1996 and July 2007 were included. Forty-two studies were included in the review. Appraisal of study quality was not undertaken.
Results.  Fear was the most common cross-cultural factor interfering with disclosure. Most of the literature examines factors influencing and interfering with disclosure of abuse among white and African-American women. Only one study was found to include a sample of Mexican-American women.
Conclusion.  Increased efforts are needed to understand disclosure of intimate partner violence in minority women so that service providers can tailor services and ways to encourage disclosure with appropriate strategies based on women's culture. Further research is needed to understand the lived experiences of minority women, including Mexican-American women living in intimate partner violence.     

Evaluating intimate partner violence

PURPOSE: To describe the incidence, assessment, and management of intimate partner violence (IPV) from a cultural perspective emphasizing the values, strengths, and health care needs of African-American women. DATA SOURCES: Review of the published scientific literature, U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) supplemented with hypothetical cases. CONCLUSIONS: Violence is a social and public health emergency affecting over 10% of the population during their lives and 22% of women who are physically assaulted by an intimate. Roughly 3 million to 4.4 million women report being battered annually, although this is a low estimate. Neither gender nor age nor sexual orientation protects one from IPV. Violent crime causes 2.2 million known injuries with a huge cost in hospital days and other expenses. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Women often hesitate to report violence; health care professionals detect as few as 5% of battered women. Women suffer for months and years before accurate diagnosis. Clinicians need to be vigilant in case finding, education, prevention, and treatment. Cultural differences in values and beliefs, and behavioral norms influence evaluation, treatment, and referral.     

An evaluation of interventions to decrease intimate partner violence to pregnant women

Prevention of abuse to women is a national priority; however, research has focused on identification of abuse rather than evaluating interventions. To evaluate the differential effectiveness of three levels of intervention, Brief, Counseling, and Outreach, a longitudinal study with repeated evaluation interviews at 2-, 6-, 12-, and 18-months postdelivery was completed at two urban public health prenatal clinics. The participants were 329 pregnant, physically abused Hispanic women. Both physical abuse and women's use of community resources were measured. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that severity of abuse decreased significantly (p < 0.001) across time for all intervention groups. Violence scores at 2-months postdelivery were significantly lower for the Outreach group (p < 0.05) compared to the Counseling only group, but not significantly lower than the Brief intervention group. At 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up there were no statistically significant differences among the intervention groups. The use of lay outreach for abused pregnant women merits further research. Abuse screening by itself, however, may be the most effective intervention to prevent abuse to pregnant women.     

More support,knowledge and awareness are needed to prepare emergency department nurses to approach potential intimate partner violence victims

Background

Intimate partner violence is a global health issue. In the emergency department, patients seek help for health problems that may be related to exposure to physical, psychological or sexual violence, or controlling behaviour from a current or former partner. Of the many victims that seek care in an emergency department, few are identified, especially among those whose chief complaint is not clearly related to recent physical abuse. Not having all the facts about a patient can jeopardise patient safety and delay treatment. The aim of this study was to describe experiences of caring for adults, subjected to intimate partner violence, from an emergency nurse perspective.

Methods

A qualitative semi-structured interview study of nine emergency care specialist nurses was conducted using content analysis.

Findings

Two categories emerged: ‘Subtle signs’ and ‘Not being enough’. The short encounters in emergency care do not allow for deep conversations. The informants highlighted the need for more knowledge about what and how to ask in that specific context. Some mentioned situations where the question had been avoided due to lack of time to handle the answer. The interviews revealed the importance of regular discussions to increase awareness of intimate partner violence and its prevalence among patients.

Conclusions

The organisation plays an important role in putting the question about intimate partner violence on the daily agenda and giving time to emergency nurses and other professions for training and reflection.