Female Suicide and Wife Abuse: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective

Counts, Dorothy Ayers

doi:10.1111/j.1943-278x.1987.tb00267.x

Cited by 72 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…[19][20][21][22][23][24] Similarly, in our study, women with IPV exposure used more alcohol (26.3% alcohol dependence, 10.5% alcohol abuse), had a trend towards …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The neural correlates of intimate partner violence in women

Flegar¹,

Fouché²,

Jordaan³

et al. 2011

Afr. J. Psych

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IntroductionIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health problem. Population-based surveys from developed countries indicate that 1 in 4 women have experienced IPV in their lifetime, and 1 in 10 are current victims. 1-2 Similarly, a cross-sectional survey from South Africa found that the lifetime prevalence of women experiencing IPV was 24.6%, and 9.5% in the last year. 3 The high prevalence of adverse physical and mental health outcomes related to IPV, is well established in the research literature. [4][5][6] In a review of mental health outcomes of women with IPV, victims of partner violence were up to 5 times more likely to develop major depressive episode (MDE), suicidality, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse compared to non victims. 7 There is growing interest in determining the neurobiological correlates of trauma exposure and its sequelae. A number of neurobiological studies of PTSD in women have specifically recruited subjects with IPV exposure. [8][9][10][11] In one such study, women exposed to IPV displayed deficits in executive functioning, working memory and visuoconstruction. 11 In another, women with IPV were found to have smaller supratentorial cranial vault volumes, largely due to reduced mesial temporal grey matter particularly in the parahippoocampal region, and reduced frontal and occipital grey matter regions. 10 Taken together, these findings suggest that IPV may be associated with deficits in cognitive tasks, which are in turn associated with a range of neural circuitry abnormalities.It is unclear whether these findings are due to the trauma exposure, or to the sequelae of trauma exposure (eg PTSD, MDE). In a series of meta-analyses of hippocampal volume in PTSD, persons exposed to trauma (not exclusively IPV) without PTSD had reduced hippocampal volumes compared to healthy non-trauma exposed controls. In the same series, a meta analysis (12 studies, N=379) of persons with trauma exposure and PTSD compared to trauma exposed non-PTSD subjects found a significant reduction in the left hippocampal volume in the PTSD group. 12 There are few studies that have specifically investigated hippocampal volume in IPV exposed subjects. One such study reported no difference in hippocampal volume in women with IPV and PTSD compared to women with Method: Nineteen women with IPV exposure in the last year, and 21 women without IPV exposure in the last year underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) sequences. Additional data on alcohol use and presence of psychiatric disorder was collected. Differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) between the two groups were examined, using a statistical model that included demographic measures, alcohol use and psychiatric disorder. Results: IPV subjects did not demonstrate significantly different hippocampal volumes compared to subjects without recent IPV. FA was, however, significantly reduced in the body of the corpus callosum of IPV subjects. Adjusting for age, alcohol use, smoking an...

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“…[19][20][21][22][23][24] Similarly, in our study, women with IPV exposure used more alcohol (26.3% alcohol dependence, 10.5% alcohol abuse), had a trend towards …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The neural correlates of intimate partner violence in women

Flegar¹,

Fouché²,

Jordaan³

et al. 2011

Afr. J. Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Large community studies found that severe partner assault increased rates of depressed mood by four times and rates of attempted suicide by five (Straus and Gelles, 1990) and that physical assault by partners was associated with higher depression scores in victims (Mullen et al, 1988;Ratner, 1993;Zlotnick et al, 1998). Ethnographic studies in the Americas (Jenkins, 1991) and Oceania (Counts, 1987;Counts 1990aCounts , 1990b link wife beating to depressed mood, suicide, and culture-specific mental illness. Regarding ethnic Chinese, being beaten by a spouse was the third most common reason given for attempted suicide by young rural women in China, a group known to have particularly high rates of completed suicide (Pearson et al, 2002).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Partner Violence and Major Depression in Women: A Community Study of Chinese Americans

Hicks

Li²

2003

Journal of Nervous &Amp; Mental Disease

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This cross-sectional, retrospective study used epidemiological and anthropological methods toward two aims: 1) to examine associations between partner violence and major depression in a community probability sample of women and 2) to provide new data on partner violence in Chinese Americans. In this study, 181 Chinese American women were interviewed, with 178 completing structured sections on CIDI 2.1 major depression and on partner violence history. Results indicate that a history of partner violence is associated with significantly higher rates of lifetime, 12-month, and current major depression in this community population. This effect is specific and independent of other factors. Partner violence also has a dose-response relationship with the severity of major depression episodes, increasing risk for severe and moderate episodes. The strength and specificity of this association, its dose-response effect, and its commonality across different populations suggest a possible causal role for partner violence needing further investigation in research on major depression in women.

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“…All nonAboriginal, female, sole parents who responded to the door-step invitation or notes left at their houses yielded a further 13 -and two refusals. The final non-Aboriginal sample was therefore 45.…”

Section: Methodology and Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘Easy Street’ Myth: Self harm among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal female sole parents in urban state housing

Radford

Brice

Harris

et al. 1999

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

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ithin the vast literature on suicide and parasuicide increas-W ingly known as deliberate self harm or self harm,' there is a paucity of prevalence or population-based studies. There are few cross-cultural studies, and none that we could find centring on sole parents and self harm, despite many that indicate much is common to sole parents and suicide at tempter^.^.^ Such common factors may confound any real differences between those exhibiting self harm and those who do not.4 This in-depth, exploratory study did not permit complex causal modelling as the number of questions posed was large while the sample size was small. Rather, it suggests trends and associations the authors believe are not likely to be due to chance, and are worthy of hrther research, and closer policy attention and social support.In the 1991 Census, there were 552,336 sole parent families in Australia. By 1996, this had risen to 672,868, which represented 35.6% of all families with dependent children -by far the fastest growing family type in A~stralia.'~ On average, 463 sole parent households were created each week between these Censuses, and the increase since 1986 has been remarkable.5 Aboriginal people make up about 1.5% of the Australian population. The 1986 Census showed that Adelaide, South Australia's capital with more than one million people, had the largest concentration of Aboriginal people in that State (5,696 or 40% ofthe SA Aboriginal population). By the 1996 Census, this number had risen sharply to 9,387 representing closer to one half (46%).In 1986, Hugo reported that 'of all Aboriginal families in SA, more than 1-in-4 is a single parent family, compared with less than 1-in-13 of all families',6 while in Adelaide AbstractObjective: To test the hypothesis that, controlling for socio-demographic factors, destructive behaviour among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal female sole parents will not be significantly different. Method: This study took place among an urban population of sole parents in Adelaide, South Australia, living in government housing. Two sample subsets were made up of 52 Aboriginal and 45 non-Aboriginal mothers from similar postcodes. Trained interviewers administered a questionnaire which, in addition to basic demographic data, elicited information concerning finance, housing, upbringing, experience of abuse and police interaction. The major issue of concern in the study was suicide attempt. Results: 141-3 of the whole sample, 2-in-5 of the non-Aboriginal and 1 -in-4 of the Aboriginal subset had attempted suicide at least once and half more than once. Statistical differences among 'attempters' vs. 'non-attempters', irrespective of ethnicity, included increased familial alcohol abuse, physical and sexual abuse, economic difficulty, poor self esteem and perceived discriminatory treatment by welfare agencies and, in the case of Aboriginals, by police. Conclusion: The social environment is critical to understanding destructive behaviour, including self-harm, regardless of culture or ethnicity. The data show that suicid...

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Female Suicide and Wife Abuse: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective

Cited by 72 publications

References 9 publications

The neural correlates of intimate partner violence in women

The neural correlates of intimate partner violence in women

Partner Violence and Major Depression in Women: A Community Study of Chinese Americans

The ‘Easy Street’ Myth: Self harm among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal female sole parents in urban state housing

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