Help-Seeking and Barriers to Care in Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) is a prevalent phenomenon, yet an under-researched topic. Due to the complex nature of balancing love and fear, individuals who experience IPSV have unique needs and face unique barriers to seeking care. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the literature on help-seeking and barriers to care in IPSV. Articles were identified through PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Search terms included terms related to IPSV, intimate partner violence (IPV), domestic violence, sexual assault, and rape. The review was limited to the United States, and articles that were included needed to specifically measure or identify sexual violence in an intimate relationship and analyze or discuss IPSV in relation to help-seeking behaviors or barriers to care. Of the 17 articles included in this review, 13 were quantitative studies and four were qualitative studies. Various definitions and measurements of IPSV across studies included in this review make drawing broad conclusions challenging. Findings suggest that experiencing IPSV compared to experiencing nonsexual IPV (i.e., physical or psychological IPV) may increase help-seeking for medical, legal, and social services while decreasing help-seeking for informal support. Help-seeking can also reduce risk of future IPSV and decrease poor mental health outcomes. Barriers to seeking care in IPSV included social stigma, fear, and difficulty for individuals in identifying IPSV behaviors in their relationships as abuse. More inclusive research is needed among different populations including men, non-White individuals, nonheterosexual, and transgender individuals. Suggestions for research, practice, and policies are discussed.

Violence and adversity among pregnant women and new mothers in central Vietnam

“…In developed countries like Australia and the UK, maternal mental health screening is integral to routine care, while in Vietnam and other Asian countries, it is rarely considered unless a woman's condition is very severe and obvious (Koirala & Chuemchit, 2020). This study confirmed findings from previous studies that a lack of clinical training is a major barrier for IPV screening and improvement in psychosocial antenatal care practice (Githui et al, 2018;Hasselle et al, 2020;Wright et al, 2021).…”

“…A reasonable approach to tackle this difference could be to make the services available for victims, such as shelters or free hotlines, more easily accessible. Specialist training should also be made available to professionals working with victims and their families so that they are better equipped to provide high-quality care (Hasselle et al, 2020;Wright et al, 2021). These suggestions correspond with Le et al (2019) who found that to improve monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, the quality of training for health workers should focus on effectively implementing policies for domestic violence prevention in local settings.…”

“…Although emotional/verbal abuse is commonly the most prevalent, followed by physical violence and sexual coercion, there has been a tendency in many studies to focus mainly on physical or sexual p-IPV and ignore emotional violence (Gibbs et al, 2020;Reichenheim et al, 2017;Sanchez et al, 2017;Woerner & Sullivan, 2019;Wright et al, 2021). In addition, different forms of violence are connected because some types of violence (e.g., child maltreatment and IPV) often share the same root causes and common consequences (Guedes et al, 2016).…”

“…depression) screening during antenatal care (Accortt & Wong, 2017;Daley et al, 2020;Duchesne et al, 2021;O'Connor et al, 2016), how to minimise maternal distress during clinical interviews for investigating maternal mental disorder and various forms of p-IPV remains uncertain (Barney et al, 2009;Rössler, 2016). Some studies have suggested a "gold standard" method to improve rapport and open disclosure, including one on one interviews in a private place where participants can be asked about specific experiences of violent acts (Abbe & Brandon, 2013;Ruiz-Pérez et al, 2007;Wright et al, 2021). Self-administered questionnaires are often used because they give women an opportunity to reveal their situation in a way that reduces embarrassment and stigma (Langhinrichsen-Rohling, 2005); however, the measuring tool needs to have good validity and reliability to correctly detect who has experienced p-IPV (Bender, 2016), especially in Asian countries where mental health literacy may be lower than in Western and HICs (Bambridge et al, 2017).…”

Korona, koti ja kontrolli: väkivaltatyöntekijöiden näkemyksiä lähisuhdeväkivallan kohteina olleiden avun saamisen haasteista korona-aikana

“…(19. ) Apua väkivaltaan liittyviin ongelmiin ja oirei siin haetaan pääasiassa sosiaali ja tervey den huol losta (20)(21). Nämä tahot ovat siten avain ase massa väkivallan tunnistamisessa ja siihen puut tumisessa.…”