The role of attitudes to, and the frequency of, domestic violence encounters in the healthcare professionals’ handling of domestic violence cases

Abstract

BackgroundDomestic violence is recognized as a public health problem with a high prevalence in the general population. Healthcare professionals play an important role in the recognition and treatment of domestic violence. Hence, conducting research on factors that facilitate or inhibit appropriate actions by healthcare professionals is of the upmost importance. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward the acceptability of domestic violence and their responses when dealing with victims of domestic violence.MethodsThe sample consisted of 322 healthcare professionals (physicians, dentists, nursing staff and other healthcare workers; 85.2% female), who completed a questionnaire, assessing their attitudes towards domestic violence, experience, behaviour and perceived barriers in recognizing and treating domestic violence in the health care sector. The study was cross-sectional and used availability sampling.ResultsThe results showed no significant differences in domestic violence acceptability attitudes when comparing groups of healthcare professionals who reported low or high frequency of domestic violence cases encounters. Furthermore, we found that domestic violence acceptability attitudes were negatively associated with action taking when the frequency of encounters with domestic violence cases was high and medium. However, the attitudes were not associated with action taking when the frequency of encounters with domestic violence cases was low.ConclusionsThe results highlight the important role of attitudes in action taking of healthcare professionals when it comes to domestic violence. This indicates the need for educational interventions that specifically target healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards domestic violence.

Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the European Union: A Systematic Review

“…The scale of Beliefs about Marital Violence (Machado, Gonçalves, & Matos, 2007; Matos, Machado, & Gonçalves, 2000) was also used in five studies conducted in Portugal (Cunha & Gonçalves, 2015; Machado, Caridade, & Martins, 2010; Machado, Gonçalves, Matos, & Dias, 2007; Neves, Cameira, Machado, Duarte, & Machado, 2018; Santos, Matos, & Machado, 2017). Seven studies used ad hoc self-report scales assessing propensity to intervene (Alfredsson, Ask, & von Borgstede, 2014), justification of cyber dating abuse (Borrajo et al., 2015), justification of IPV and perception of IPV as abuse (Diaz-Aguado & Martinez, 2015), perception of psychological abuse and victim blaming (Marques-Fagundes, Megías, García-García, & Petkanopoulou, 2015), and acceptability attitudes (Fenton & Mott, 2018; Wan & Bateman, 2007; Zorjan, Smrke, & Šprah, 2017). Four of these studies based on ad hoc measures reported reliability, and only in one study were factor and validity analyses of the instrument described (Borrajo et al, 2015).…”

Impact of adverse childhood experiences on alcohol use in emerging adults in Montenegro and Romania

“…This means that, e.g. by targeting healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward domestic violence (38), the burden of ACEs could be reduced and, consequently, partly also the burden of AU. Thus, the presented evidence suggests that strategies for AU prevention and control should integrate interventions for managing early adversities, which is true not only for Montenegro and Romania, but also for other countries in transition with similar socio-economic and cultural conditions.…”

Análise Bibliográfica Da Assistência De Enfermagem Prestada a Mulher Vítima De Violência Doméstica

“…Os artigos selecionados, explanam sobre de que forma a enfermagem pode realizar assistência a mulher vítima de violência doméstica evidenciando o acolhimento como conduta primordial para uma assistência de qualidade e a necessidade de humanização no atendimento, e a limitação do conhecimento dos profissionais de enfermagem em relação ao atendimento a mulheres violentadas (ZORJAN;SMRKE;ŠPRAH, 2017;ACOSTA et al, 2017;LIMA et al ., 2017;AMARIJO et al, 2018;HEISLER et al, 2018;GOICOLEA et al, 2019;CAVALCANTTI et al, 2020;DIVAKAR et al, 2019;ALSHAMMARI;MCGARRY;HIGGINBOTTOM, 2018).…”