"This Society Ignores Our Victimization": Understanding the Experiences of Korean Male Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Development and Validation of the Bystander Engagement Scale for Witnessed Intimate Partner Violence: A South Korean Version

Bystanders play a crucial role in assisting and rescuing victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) or sexual assault, thereby preventing further harm. Consequently, an increasing amount of research has focused on improving bystander interventions in such situations. While many existing scales that measure bystanders' willingness to intervene and their behaviors are likely tailored to Western settings and primarily focused on preventing sexual assaults, pursuing diversity to make these scales applicable to a variety of contexts is necessary. This study aimed to develop and validate a scale from South Korean samples that measure the likely level of bystander engagement in witnessed IPV situations, named the Bystander Engagement Scale for Witnessed Intimate Partner Violence (BESW-IPV). Preliminary items, developed to describe various IPV situations that a bystander might witness, underwent content validity testing through expert review and cognitive focus group interviews. Afterward, the scale was administered to 311 participants from the target population in South Korea. The scale's factor structure was assessed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability and validity were rigorously assessed. The final version of the BESW-IPV comprised 28 items. Through EFA, "direct IPV indicators" and "indirect IPV indicators" were identified. Together, these factors accounted for 76.10% of the total variance. CFA affirmed that the final model offers an acceptable fit. The scale's convergent and discriminant validities were also well established. The Cronbach's alpha and the McDonald's omega values were 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. In contrast to many existing tools that measure bystander intervention predominantly within the confines of Western educational settings, we believe that the BESW-IPV can be applied in broader contexts, especially in patriarchal environments. Further research is required to translate and validate this tool in different cultural contexts.

Social marketing program for dating violence bystander intervention on university campus: analyzing its effectiveness and sociocultural feasibility

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness and sociocultural feasibility of a dating violence (DV) bystander intervention program, called With-Us, implemented on university campus in South Korea. Participants were recruited from two universities, some as part of an intervention group (n = 99) and the others as part a comparison group (n = 67). The participants were assessed pre- and post-interventions in terms of their readiness and intention to help, as well as their efficacy. Analyses show that the program increased the readiness in bystanders to help victims. Contrarily, it was observed that older participants, males, and those having higher patriarchal gender stereotypes, were less likely to pay attention to the program. Based on the findings, we provided several suggestions to promote its effectiveness and sociocultural feasibility so that it could be efficiently applied in further studies.

Gender and role associations between domestic violence during childhood and dating violence: Victimization among male college students mediated through violence justification beliefs

BACKGROUND

Although the victimization experiences of male college students in dating relationships are gaining increasing scholarly attention, there is still limited empirical evidence and theoretical understanding of the mechanism through which male victims of domestic violence experience subsequent dating violence.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the specific mechanisms through which male victimization of domestic violence during childhood transmits to dating violence experience in adulthood. Whether the intergenerational transmission of violence may be explained by gendered pathways or by male participants' identification with the victim's position will be tested.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Participants included 526 South Korean male college students in Seoul.

METHODS

Child abuse, witnessing interparental violence, and beliefs justifying and accepting violence were divided based on the gender of the offender and victim to assess distinct effects. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate the relationships between dating violence victimization and child abuse/witnessing interparental violence and the mediation effect of beliefs justifying violence in the relationships between the variables.

RESULTS

Both paternal and maternal abuse have significant direct relationships with male dating violence victimization. Witnessing mother-to-father violence had a significant and direct relationship with male victimization while witnessing father-to-mother violence did not. The mediation effect of justification of female-to-male violence was confirmed between witnessing mother-initiated violence and male victimization, whereas justification of male-to-female violence did not show a mediating effect between witnessing father-initiated violence and male victimization.

CONCLUSION

Both role and gender associations were confirmed. The results imply that there are different ways through which children learn about violence. More specific targets should be addressed in education programs to break the vicious cycle of violence.

Types of Bystanders Among South Koreans Based on Their Subjective Reactions to Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) can occur when bystanders are present, and these bystanders may intervene to prevent the situation from worsening and assist the victims. Despite the importance of bystanders' roles and behaviors in relation to IPV incidents, as well as extensive research to understand and promote it, there have been relatively few studies aimed at understanding their reactions in non-Western populations. Moreover, bystanders' subjective opinions and thoughts have largely been neglected when predicting their intention to intervene. Therefore, the current study identified the types of bystanders in South Korea based on their subjective reactions when witnessing IPV incidents. Q-methodology was utilized. A Q-set comprising 31 statements describing the possible range of bystander reactions was constructed using a systematic review method. The 42 participants were asked to sort the Q-set based on their agreement and provide qualitative responses regarding the reasons behind their sorting. The data were analyzed using the PQMethod software. Consequently, three types of bystander groups were extracted based on the participants' sorting statement patterns: (1) hesitant helpers needing justification, (2) outsiders denouncing the couple, and (3) active interveners opposing the violence. Each type of bystander expressed different opinions and thoughts about bystander reactions and behaviors in IPV situations. However, participants frequently showed a willingness to intervene when they knew the victim personally and when the victim directly requested help. With our findings as a reference, we expect that various bystander programs with specified purposes will be developed to effectively increase the competency of diverse bystanders to maximize their roles in relation to IPV.

Barriers to Men's Help Seeking for Intimate Partner Violence

Evidence suggests that male victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are less likely to seek help for their victimization than female victims. Studies exploring barriers to help seeking are relatively scarce in the United Kingdom (UK) and those that have been undertaken across Europe, United States, Canada, and Australia have tended to rely on small samples of help-seeking men who have self-identified as victims of IPV. With a view to include more male victim voices in the literature, an anonymous qualitative questionnaire was distributed via social media. In total, 147 men (85% from the UK) who self-identified as being subject to abuse from their female partners, completed the questionnaire. The data was subjected to a deductive thematic analysis and one superordinate and two overarching themes were identified. The superordinate theme was stigmatized gender and the two overarching themes (subthemes in parentheses) were barriers prohibiting help seeking (status and credibility, health and well-being) and responses to initial help seeking (discreditation, exclusion/isolation, and helpfulness). The findings are discussed in the context of Overstreet and Quinn's (2013) interpersonal violence and stigma model and findings from previous research. The conclusions and recommendations promote education and training and advocate a radical change to policy.

Discourses Around Male IPV Related Systemic Biases on Reddit

To date research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has focused on the experience of females. The limited studies on male IPV survivors have shown that they are less likely to disclose their IPV experiences. Systemic biases may marginalize and silence male IPV survivors.The current study sought to explore the discourse around perceived systemic biases that may be present for male IPV survivors.A widely used social networking site (http://www.reddit.com/) was scraped for submissions relating to male IPV. Search was carried out using three keywords resulting in 917 submissions, out of which 82 met inclusion criteria. Submissions were included in final analysis if they consisted of more than half a page of data pertaining to male IPV. Thematic content analysis was utilized to analyze the data.Responses reflect common experiences with participants identifying multiple sources of perceived systemic biases: (1) social norms, (2) legal system, (3) social services, (4) media, and (5) government.The sources of potential support for male IPV survivors exhibit substantial pervasive biases against males as victims of IPV. Findings from current study can inform policies across multiple systems.

Ugandan Men Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Nationally Representative Data

Although women typically constitute the largest proportion of the population who experience the deleterious effects of intimate partner violence (IPV), understanding the bidirectional nature of IPV is important for developing nuanced prevention initiatives. This study examines data from the 2016 Ugandan Demographic and Health Survey. Participants were selected from households in all the 15 regions in Uganda using a two stage sampling design. A total of 2858 men who were in a heterosexual union or separated/divorced were included in the analysis. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed with the aim of identifying associations between selected demographic variables and male exposure to all forms of IPV combined, psychological violence, physical violence and sexual violence. The prevalence of lifetime IPV and during the 12 months preceeding the survey respectively was 43.6 and 30.5% in all forms, with 35.9 and 24.8% reporting psychological, 20.2 and 11.9% for physical and 8.2 and 5.7% sexual violence. The key factors associated with all forms of IPV were being afraid of their wife/partner most of the time (OR = 5.10, 95% CI 2.91, 8.96) controlling behaviour of the intimate partner (OR = 3.80, 95% CI 2.84, 5.07), bi-directional violence against the partner (OR = 3.20, 95% CI 2.49, 4.12), alcohol consumption by the intimate partner (OR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.40, 2.45). The factors associated with males who experience IPV appear to be modifiable and may warrant consideration for inclusion in programs supporting both males and females who experience IPV.

A mixed-method pilot study to test a program for friend-supporters of victims of dating violence

This study aimed to evaluate the acceptability and impact of a bystander program (With You Education) in South Korea, designed to enhance the competencies of friend-supporters to help victims of dating violence (DV). To assess the potential impact of the program, the participants (n = 46) were asked to complete pre-, post-, and 1-year follow-up surveys and take part in a focused group interview after the training. Participants exhibited significant changes from pretest to posttest evaluation in terms of their competencies as a supporter. Most improvements were sustained over time. Four qualitative themes revealed the multilayered outcomes of this program: increased readiness to help, awareness of DV, beginning to understand the victims, and awareness of DV as a public health problem. With You Education was seen to be an acceptable program for young adults, which can be potentially utilized as a formal violence-related education.