Intimate partner violence in adolescents: Preventive strategies for psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners

The Association Between Intimate Partner Violence and Work Thriving/Work Alienation Among Chinese Female Nurses: The Mediating Impact of Resilience

Objective

The primary objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the prevalence of different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) among female nurses employed in public hospitals across China. Additionally, the study sought to investigate the relationship between nurses' psychological resilience and their experiences of work thriving and work alienation in the aftermath of IPV.

Methods

This cross-sectional study utilized an online self-report survey to collect data from a sample of 522 female nurses working in public healthcare facilities across several major cities in China. The survey instrument collected information on participants' sociodemographic characteristics, experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV), psychological resilience, work thriving, and work alienation. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test was used to compare outcome variables across IPV exposure groups, and multiple linear regression modeling was subsequently performed to examine the associations between the dependent variables (work thriving and work alienation) and the independent variables, including IPV exposure and resilience.

Results

The overall prevalence of IPV reported by the female nurse participants was 74.26%. Specifically, the rates of emotional IPV, physical IPV, and sexual IPV were 74.06%, 24.27%, and 7.53%, respectively. The results indicated that total IPV exposure, the three IPV subtypes, psychological resilience, work thriving, and work alienation were all significantly and positively interrelated. IPV scores demonstrated a negative association with psychological resilience and work thriving, but a positive association with work alienation. Importantly, psychological resilience was found to be positively correlated with work thriving and negatively correlated with work alienation.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that psychological resilience plays a pivotal role, both directly and indirectly, in influencing the work-related outcomes of female nurses who have experienced IPV. Specifically, resilience was positively associated with thriving at work and directly negatively associated with work alienation, though a partial mediating effect of resilience was also observed.

Intentional child and adolescent homicides in Milan (Italy): A 30-year interdisciplinary study

This study aims to discuss the forensic and criminological implications of child homicides in the territory of Milan, Italy. The authors present a retrospective study on all the cases of child and adolescent homicides, that were observed at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan (Italy) in the last 30 years (from January 1991 to December 2020). A total of 46 child homicides were collected, focusing on the sociological features, by highlighting peculiar cases, risk factors, potential changing social trends, and comparing our cases with the current literature. The analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship (p < 0.05) for male adolescents and indicated that adolescent homicides were more frequently perpetrated in extrafamilial contexts. In contrast, neonaticides and infanticides were mainly committed at home. Furthermore, the Fisher's Exact test revealed that child murders were mainly committed by immigrants in the Milan district after 2005 (p < 0.05). The two main causes of death were due to sharp and firearm injuries. While the relationship between homicide clusters and homicides committed by sharp objects was not significant, adolescent homicides were mainly committed using firearms (p < 0.05). The present study may help to identify risk factors for homicides against child and adolescent. Consequently, policies that identify, prevent, and minimize this extreme violence should be designed to interrupt the vicious circle of such dreadful murderous events. Child and adolescent homicides deserve additional focus and better education for healthcare professionals and further research should be carried out to develop therapeutic and caring strategies.

Do we have friendly services to meet the needs of young women exposed to intimate partner violence in the Madrid region?

Introduction

Women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) do not tend to go very frequently to formal support services. The objective of this study is to identify barriers related to the accessibility, acceptability, equity, appropriateness and effectiveness of IPV services from the perspective of the professionals working in the IPV public services.

Methods

A qualitative study was carried out in the Madrid region based on 13 semi‐structured interviews of young women who had survived IPV as well as 17 interviews with professionals. A thematic content analysis was performed, guided by the dimensions proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for friendly services for young people.

Results

From the perspective of the young women and professionals, barriers were identified for all the dimensions of the WHO's friendly services for young people: accessibility: lack of information and support from the social setting, scarce dissemination of the services, economic cost, non‐adapted schedules, inadequate locations or lack of services in settings close to young people; acceptability: lack of protocols to guarantee confidentiality, lack of speed in the provision of services or their referral, unwelcoming environments or unsympathetic professional malpractice; equity: discriminatory professional attitudes towards groups with different social status and lack of protocols to ensure the care of these groups; appropriateness: unmet needs and lack of multidisciplinary teams; and effectiveness: shortage of time, resources, competent professionals, protocols and coordination.

Conclusions

Strategies are needed to make the necessary changes to promote friendly services for the care of young people exposed to IPV. Additionally, it must be emphasized that resources are needed to raise awareness and disseminate IPV services, as well as to train professionals in this area.

Patient or Public Contribution

This paper is based on professionals' perspectives of public IPV‐related services of different areas such as Psychology, Social Work, Nursing, Psychiatry, Social Education and young women exposed to IPV. They either work in the public administration at the local, regional or state level or in NGOs in Spain.