Exposure to Domestic Violence during Adolescence: Coping Strategies and Attachment Styles as Early Moderators and their Relationship to Functioning during Adulthood

Assessing risk indicators of intimate partner femicide considering victim's coping strategies to violence: A dynamic multilevel linear mixed model based on genetic algorithms

Intimate partner femicide (IPF) is a grave social and health concern affecting women worldwide, with approximately 30,000 deaths annually at the hands of their current or former intimate partners. Previous studies have focused on identifying risk factors for IPF and developing risk assessment tools to identify high-risk cases. However, an important aspect that has been overlooked in these studies is victims' coping strategies in response to intimate partner violence. Understanding victims' coping strategies can provide valuable insights into how they deal with the abuse and can inform the development of effective interventions and prevention strategies. This study aims to address this gap by developing a multilevel linear mixed model (LMM) to analyze the impact of engagement and disengagement coping on the likelihood of IPF and identify common and specific IPF risk indicators for these coping strategies. A total of 491 Spanish cases of violence against women by current or former intimate partners were analyzed from penal sentences issued by Spanish provincial and supreme courts from 2019 to 2022. The LMM model obtained from the study has competitive performance in identifying IPF and non-IPF cases, including risk indicators of prior history of injuries, history of sexual aggression, frequency and escalation of violence, physical violence, place of crime, lonely place of crime, and community presence. Victims with engagement coping and disengagement coping share some risk indicators, while others belong to just one category. Overall, the results suggest that victims with disengagement coping are more predisposed to suffer IPF than victims with engagement coping. This evidenced-based knowledge emphasizes the significance of considering coping strategies in predicting and preventing IPF, with further implications discussed at the end of this paper.

Perinatal intimate partner violence among teen mothers and children's attachment disorders in Rwanda: potential mediating factors

Background: The alarming prevalence of teen mothers' exposure to perinatal intimate partner violence (IPV, 8.3-67%) and attachment disorders (ADs) among their children is a global concern, especially in sub-Saharan Africa with high teenage pregnancy rates. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the link between teen IPV and AD in their offspring. We sought also to explore the mediating roles of postpartum depression symptoms, maternal sensitivity, parenting stress, and perceived social support in the relationship between perinatal IPV and children's ADs.Method: This cross-sectional study selected a random sample of 309 teen mothers from Nyanza district. This sample size was determined using Yamane's formula, with random sampling. Various instruments were used for data collection, including questionnaires on intimate partner violence, social support, maternal sensitivity, postpartum depression symptoms and parenting stress and early trauma-related disorders. The data was analysed using SPSS, with mediation analyses performed using the PROCESS macro (version 4.1).Results: IPV was found to be significantly associated with attachment disorders. Simple mediation models showed that parenting stress completely mediated these relationships, while postpartum depression, perceived social support, and maternal sensitivity partially mediated the relationship between IPV and children's ADs. In parallel mediation model, the combined roles of all mediators fully mediated the associations between IPV and ADs.Conclusion: These findings offer valuable insights in designing or strengthening the appropriate interventions to prevent and mitigate the perinatal intimate partner violence and its detrimental impact on children's attachment disorders. Combating intimate partner violence in post-conflict situations is challenging in teen mothers, however, our results suggest that efforts to address maternal mental health and parenting practices may protect children from attachment disorders.

Childhood Trauma and Exposure to Violence Interventions: The Need for Effective and Feasible Evidence-Based Interventions

Several crimes in South Africa cause physical, economic, and mental problems. Xenophobic attacks, mob justice, and other violent conduct directly traumatise children. Service delivery riots and physical and sexual abuse are examples. This evaluation evaluates childhood trauma and exposure to violence interventions. The review describes the therapeutic methods for traumatised children exposed to violence, the healthcare professionals administering them, and the strategies used to tailor the interventions. The researcher systematically searched PsycINFO, Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, and EBSCOhost. Literature from 2011 to 31 July 2023 was searched, and 19 papers were chosen for further review after the systematic search. The authors conducted an eligibility evaluation according to PRISMA guidelines. A thorough review of article texts identified 19 papers that met eligibility standards. Only nineteen studies have validated trauma and violence therapies for children. An effective multi-phased intervention that is feasible and adaptable to varied socioeconomic backgrounds is needed. Further studies on the mental health benefits of brief trauma intervention treatment are needed.

Children's Sense of Belonging in the Context of Post-separation Parental Stalking: Finnish Children's Experiences of their Family Relations

Drawing from previous research on domestic violence and stalking, this study addresses children's experiences of their family relations in post-separation parental stalking contexts from the perspective of stalking as a form of violence against women and children. Despite the fact that violence perpetrated by a parent fundamentally changes family dynamics and children's perceptions of family security, research on children's family relations in the course of domestic violence or stalking has rarely addressed children's sense of belonging. The aim of this paper is to augment our understanding of children's experiences of family relations in connection with parental stalking. The research question is: How do children experience their belonging in family relations in the context of post-separation parental stalking? A total of 31 children and young people aged 2-21 participated in the study. The data were collected through interviews and therapeutic action group sessions with the children. The qualitative data analysis was content-oriented. Four dimensions of children's sense of belonging were identified: (1) Varying belonging, (2) distancing belonging, (3) non-belonging and (4) holding belonging. The first three dimensions are constructed in relation to the child's stalking father, while the fourth one includes the mother, siblings and other relationships that provide safety and comfort. The dimensions are parallel and not mutually exclusive. The study indicates that a finer-grained understanding of children's sense of belonging in family relations is needed when social and health care and law enforcement professionals evaluate the child's safety and best interest.

Comparisons of violence exposure within and across contexts in predicting depression among Chinese children and adolescents

BACKGROUND

Existing research has identified violence exposure as a risk factor for depression among children and adolescents. To date, however, we know little about whether these associations are influenced by the forms (witnessing and victimization) of violence exposure across different contexts (family, school, and community).

OBJECTIVE

The present study thus aimed to compare the effects of two forms of violence exposure across and within three contexts. Sex and age differences were also tested in the above associations.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Participants (N = 906, 52.4 % boys, T1: M_age = 11.03) were children and adolescents recruited from elementary and junior schools in Zhejiang Province, China.

METHODS

All participants were asked to complete questionnaires about their experiences of various types of violence exposure and depression at two time points with a 12-month interval. SPSS and Mplus were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Considering the comparison within contexts, witnessing family violence was a more influential predictor than family violence victimization while school violence was the opposite. As for the comparison across contexts, no significant differences were found in the effects of different violence victimization, while the effect of witnessing family violence and community violence were more influential than witnessing school violence. No significant sex differences in the above associations were found. However, community violence victimization was more negatively related to depression among adolescents compared with children.

CONCLUSIONS

The associations between violence exposure and depression are influenced by the forms and contexts of violence as well as age groups.

Reflections of Childhood Violence on Maternity in Turkey

This study examines the effects of paternal violence experiences of women on their own mothering attitudes and on their relationships with their mothers. The study employed the interpretive phenomenology design. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were used. The study group consisted of four women selected according to the criterion sampling method. The results were grouped under three headings: "perceptions about the mother's attitudes towards the violence perpetrated by the father," "attitudes towards children," and "relationships with the mother." The present study shows the effects of intergenerational transmission of violence on women's lives. The obtained results are expected to contribute to the development of therapeutic interventions for women exposed to domestic violence in childhood.

Domestic violence and substance abuse during COVID19: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION

As COVID-19 develops around the world, numerous publications have described the psychiatric consequences of this pandemic. Although clinicians and healthcare systems are mainly focused on managing critically ill patients in an attempt to limit the number of casualties, psychiatric disease burden is increasing significantly. In this scenario, increased domestic violence and substance abuse have been recently reported.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to perform a systematic review of the literature regarding the consequences of severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 infection in terms of domestic violence and substance abuse, and compare incidences found.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a literature search using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. The keywords included "domestic violence," "substance abuse" AND "COVID-19," including multiple variants from December 2019 through June 2020. An extensive bibliographic search was carried out in different medical databases: Pubmed, EMBASE, LILACS, medRxiv, and bioRxiv. Titles and abstracts were reviewed according to the eligibility criteria. The risk of bias in the retrieved articles was assessed by the Joanna Briggs Institute's critical assessment instrument.

RESULTS

A total of 1505 papers were initially retrieved after consulting the selected databases. After browsing through titles and abstracts, 94 articles were initially included considering the predefined eligibility criteria. After a more detailed analysis, only six scientific articles remained in our selection. Of these, three were evaluating domestic violence against children, while the other three were about substance abuse.

CONCLUSION

There is not enough evidence to support the concept that COVID-19 has led to an increase in the rates of domestic violence and substance abuse. The initial decrease in violence reports might not translate into a real reduction in incidence but in accessibility. Apparently, there has been a slight increase in alcohol and tobacco abuse, especially by regular users, which also requires confirmatory studies. The inconsistency between expert opinon articles and the actual published data could be a result of the limited time since the beginnging of the crisis, the fact that psychitaric patients have been chronically exposed to stressful situatons, and a possible stimulated increase in demand for psychatric consultations.