- Citation/Abstract
- Dissertation or Thesis
Abstract (summary)
Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a preventable public health issue that disproportionally damages the health of women around the world. Individual, relational, societal, community, and structural level factors influence the help-seeking process for IPV in which women across different cultural and demographic backgrounds engage. It is important to understand the complexity of factors that may influence women’s help-seeking process for IPV from formal (e.g., criminal justice systems, domestic violence shelter, healthcare service providers) and informal (e.g., family, friends, neighbors) resources. Guided by feminist perspectives and the theoretical framework for understanding of help-seeking process for IPV, this manuscript option dissertation encompassed three interrelated projects which focused on examining risk and protective factors associated with the help-seeking process among women experiencing IPV. Aims of the manuscript dissertation were: 1) to complete an integrative review of current literature to understand the influences of sociocultural norms on women’s responses to IPV; 2) to explore risk factors associated with women’s exposure to three different types of IPV exposure (i.e., physical, sexual, stalking) and the interconnection of those factors and three types of IPV exposure; and 3) to understand the influences of risk factors in the process of helpseeking for IPV from formal and informal resources among women who have experienced IPV residing in Kentucky in the United States.
Methods: Project one followed the Whittemore and Knafl framework for conducting an integrative review in nursing science. Project two was an observational research design using multiple logistic regression analyses. Project three was an explanatory sequential mixed methods study. The researchers implemented the quantitative phase first followed by a qualitative phase to explain and extend quantitative results to explore factors that may be associated with women’s help-seeking process for IPV from formal and informal resources in women experiencing IPV.
Results: Stigma surrounding IPV, patriarchal practices, gender roles, family honor, and concerns about the well-being of children are important sociocultural norms that inhibit women from seeking help for IPV across women from different cultures. Low levels of income and education status, residential instability, presence of children, health issues, and government benefits were recurrent factors retained across all three IPV exposure that may be associated with women’s exposure to three types of IPV. The multiple levels of barriers (i.e., sociocultural norms, personal beliefs, emotional and physical isolation by the perpetrator, lack of awareness and available resources for IPV, and negative experiences with formal service providers) impede women from seeking help for IPV from formal and informal resources.
Conclusion: Findings of this dissertation presented the complexity of multiple levels of factors in women’s help-seeking process for IPV from formal and informal resources. To develop effective and efficient IPV prevention programs and screening tools for IPV in healthcare settings, there remains a crucial need for future warrant research to examine risk and protective factors in the help-seeking process for IPV among women from different cultural and demographic backgrounds in the United States.