Building a New Intimate Relationship After Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence in Victim-Survivors of South Korea

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to harmful acts occurring among members of an intimate relationship. Many studies have explored individuals’ experiences of IPV as well as its consequences; however, so far, few studies have explored the lives of IPV victim-survivors after escaping from the violent relationship and the experiences of building new intimate relationships. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand the young female adults’ experience of building a new intimate relationship after ending their abusive relationship. This study used a qualitative phenomenological design to understand the women’s lived experiences in their own voices, as suggested by Giorgi. In total, 13 young female adults in South Korea were recruited and interviewed. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Drawing on the interview data, we constructed the structure of their experiences through identifying five themes: (I) having difficulty in meeting new people, (II) starting to build a new relationship based on trauma, (III) struggling to escape the boundaries of the abuser, (IV) learning about healthy intimate relationships, and (V) something’s wrong again. The findings were meaningful in that they showed how victim-survivors clearly needed care and support even after they escaped from their abusive relationships and began new ones. In addition, we found that some of them entered into another abusive relationship with their new partners. Finally, this study informs researchers and health professionals across the world about the experiences of IPV victims within specific cultural background. We hope that the findings of this study will contribute to building various interventions and programs for victim-survivors of IPV.

An integrative literature review on intimate partner violence against women in South Korea

“…The 12 descriptive studies presented research on experiences of IPV [17][18][19], influencing factors [20][21][22][23][24][25], the legal and support system [26,27], and women who relied on the perpetrators of IPV [28]. The nine qualitative studies explored experiences of IPV [29][30][31][32], women's experience of building their identity after IPV [33], experiences of seeking help to overcome IPV [34], and experiences after IPV ended [17,35]. Quantitative studies investigated the level of harm caused by IPV [36], predictors of risk [37], the relationship of IPV with depression [38], and gender awareness and self-assertion [39].…”

“…Among the major variables used in IPV studies were demographic and sociological characteristics related to marital status and household income [22,28,38], stereotypes such as dating violence beliefs or tolerance [17,24,25,36,39], and sexual self-assertion related to perceptions of violence against women [23,25,39]. In addition, studies on coping [29,31,32,34] and the coping process [31,32,35] were conducted in studies dealing with post-IPV experiences. Women's experiences of spousal violence were closely related to their experiences of parental verbal violence in childhood [18] and subsequently were associated with women's depres-sion, stress, and diminished self-esteem.…”

“…Some of the studies [24,25,29,32,41] regarding dating violence showed that gender stereotypes and sexual self-assertion [17], [19], [20], [21], [23], [25], [27], [29], [31], [32], [34][35][36], [39], [41] Married women 10 (40.0) [18], [22], [24], [26], [28], [30], [32], [33], [38], [ [18], [22], [27], [28] 2011-2015 10 (40.0) [17], [21], [25], [26], [30], [33], [37], [38], [40] 2016 and beyond 11 (44.0) [19], [20], [23], [24], [29], [31], [32], …”

“…Less than 100 13 (52.0) [17], [29], [20], [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], [40], [ [18], [20], [24], [26], [28], [30], [33], [40] Dating violence 10 (40.0) [17], [21], [22], [29], [31], [32], [34], [35], [39], [41] Factors affecting violence 7 (28.0) [19], [23], [25], [27], [36], [37], [38]…”

“…Third, social factors included the impact of social support, such as the degree of counseling assistance, the relationship with the counselor, and the social support system after IPV. Furthermore, analyses of the influence of IPV on life before or after the harm showed that the victim-survivors of IPV experience numerous negative consequences even after their abusive relationships end [32,35].…”