"I Thought It Was Normal": Adolescents' Attempts to Make Sense of Their Experiences of Domestic Violence in Their Families

A scoping review of nursing interventions for reducing the negative impacts of domestic violence among women

BACKGROUND

Incidences of domestic violence against women are increasingly every years. Domestic violence has the negative impacts on physical problems, psychological problems, and can even cause death. Nurses have a role for providing interventions to reduce the impact of domestic violence on women.

AIM

The purpose of this study is to explore methods of nursing interventions in reducing the traumatic effect of domestic violence among women.

METHOD

This study used a scoping review method. The literature used in this study from CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus databases. Search articles used the keywords domestic violence, impact, women, and victims. PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews are used for selecting articles. The inclusion criteria for the articles in this study were that the sample was female victims of sexual violence, randomized control trial or quasi-experimental research design, and last 10 years for publications period (2013-2022).

RESULT

From three databases, we found 579 articles. After elimination-based inclusion and exclusion criteria, we found 10 articles discussing the effect of nursing interventions in reducing the impact of domestic violence on female victims. Most of the studies from USA and the range of respondents in the articles is 112-1250 respondents. The methods used in providing nursing interventions are classified into three, namely self-management programs, counseling programs, social support programs. The activities carried out in nursing interventions in the form of psychoeducation, relaxation, meditation, and also discussions about solving problems encountered. All articles show that nursing interventions are effective in reducing the impact of domestic violence on women.

CONCLUSION

Nurses have an important role to provide comprehensive nursing care to victims of domestic violence by paying attention to various aspects, namely physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects to improve safety and comfort of patients.

IMPLICATION FOR NURSING

This study is the basis for nurses to provide comprehensive nursing care to reduce the impact of domestic violence among women victims of domestic violence.

Surviving the Storm: Exploring Lives Through Personal Stories of Childhood Trauma

Background

Traumatic experiences in an early phase of an individual's life stand out as a highly influential risk factor for poor developmental outcomes. Studies examining poor childhood experiences revealed childhood trauma linked to a negative impact on mental health. Therefore, the objective of this study is to comprehend and investigate the subjective childhood experiences of the affected children.

Methods

A qualitative approach was adopted to explore the lived experiences with their consequences. The study employed a purposeful sampling technique to choose adolescents who had encountered abuse and were capable of articulating their experiences with clarity. In-depth interviews were carried out with 18 adolescents aged 13-18 years, all from childcare homes (mean = 16, SD = 1.46). The transcriptions of these interviews were analyzed using a thematic approach.

Results

The analysis indicated that the children experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, rape, abandonment, and neglected home environment. The children took responsibility for the abuse directed toward them and were also engaged in substance use. They further reported experiencing negative effects on their behavioral functions (anger, isolation), cognitive function (difficulty in concentration, low academic performances), emotional function (fear, helplessness), social function (withdrawal, mutism), and biological function (sleeplessness, lack of appetite) due to the adverse events in their life. Perceived needs, for instance, emotional, social, and educational support and positive relationship, as well as growth from traumatic experiences were stated by the children.

Conclusion

The findings of the study could have practical implications for clinicians, aiding in the understanding of low emotional expression and unexplained behavior among individuals and assisting in addressing the underlying vulnerability to facilitate their overcoming of these challenges. Additionally, it is suggested that a comprehensive strategy be used that addresses stigma, cultural values, and social norms in addition to legal issues to address the problem.

Traumatised Children's Perspectives on Their Lived Experience: A Review

Introduction: Most children have exposure of traumatic events during their life, such as natural disasters, accidents, and abuses. A review of traumatised children's perspective on traumatic events plays an important role in enhancing our understanding and promoting appropriate tailor-made intervention and support to these children. Methods: Four main health-related electronic databases were searched for all English full-text qualitative research articles over the past 11 years to uncover the recent best available perspective/evidence from traumatised children. The PRISMA checklist was adopted to guide the review process. Results: Five themes about children's experiences and perspectives towards the traumatic events encountered were summarised and integrated from 19 qualitative studies identified. They included daily life problems related to trauma, negative responses to trauma, perceived health needs, coping strategies related to trauma and stress, and growth from traumatic experience. Conclusions: This systematic review provides evidence about responses/impacts and perceived health needs of traumatised children and informs the direction caregivers' training can take, helping these children by early identification and timely intervention. More research is needed to examine/compare traumatised children's responses and coping between diverse traumatic experiences, time from exposure, and the sociodemographic characteristics of these children.

Legal System Disclosure Experiences of Young Adult Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Children exposed to domestic violence (DV) disclose their experiences to a variety of people, including informal (e.g., peers), formal (e.g., doctors), and legal (e.g., police) support systems. Legal system disclosure is more common than formal system disclosure yet remains understudied leaving unanswered questions about the nature of those who choose to disclose and factors that influence their disclosure decision. Guided by communication privacy management theory and Johnson's typology of domestic violence (DV), this study addressed gaps in the CEDV literature through a theoretical thematic analysis of the DV exposure and legal system disclosure experiences of 25 young adults exposed to father-mother-perpetrated DV during their childhood. Findings from this study show that half of the participants had no legal system disclosure (n = 12; nondisclosers) and half had at least some legal system disclosure (n = 13; disclosers). Varying types of violence exposure and levels of exposure were factors that impacted youths' decisions to disclose to legal systems. Escalation of violence was a key factor that drove legal system disclosure, but other factors including how the young adults and their communities perceived their fathers, the match between the youth's goals for disclosure and the outcomes upon disclosing, along with family privacy norms and family boundaries were influential in guiding decision making over time. This study has implications for practitioners working with DV-exposed youth, as our findings unpack the conditions under which youth choose to (not) disclose, the factors influencing these decisions, and how the responses and reactions from legal support systems inform future disclosure decisions.

Trivialization of Aggression Against Women in India: An Exploration of Life Writings and Societal Perception

Purpose

Aggression, or an action that intend to harm, encompasses different forms with varying intensity, impact, and salient features. Globally and in Indian context specifically, aggression against women is often normalized if there is no physical aggression involved as the hurt caused tends to be invisible. The current study explored the perceived intensity of physical, verbal, and sexual aggression among south Indian adults.

Method

Aggressive instances from the life writings of two south Indian women were chosen and were rated by five independent coders to check inter-coder reliability. The select narratives disclose instances of domestic aggression. Ten instances with highest ratings were chosen as the material for data collection. Adults (N = 145) from two southern states had reported the perceived intensity of aggression in each context. Textual analysis and ANOVA were the analytic techniques adopted.

Results

The results indicate trivialization of verbal aggression compared to physical and sexual aggression. Further, the instances of verbal or more subtle aggression were perceived as even more trivial when the respondents got exposed to the instances of explicit physical and sexual aggressions first.

Conclusions

The findings indicate trivialization of verbal and implicit forms of aggression, particularly when exposed along with physical and explicit forms of aggression. Consequences of different forms of aggression were not considered significant by the respondents. Suggestions for further studies, changes in policy-making, and law-enforcement were made based on the current results.