Understanding help-seeking barriers after Gender-Based Violence: Validation of the Barriers to Help Seeking-Trauma version (BHS-TR)

Clinical variation in the expression of panic disorder, depression and anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has have been documented across cultures. However, local (emic) cultural models that explain how people make sense of their illness experiences remain relatively understudied in India among trauma-exposed populations. Further, the integration of emic findings into clinical care is limited, underscoring the need for emic perspectives following trauma to improve the development or adaptation of trauma-focused treatments in India. This study describes an emic explanatory model of distress, which includes idioms of distress, perceived causes of distress, and coping/help-seeking behaviors among Indian women from slums reporting gender-based violence. This explanatory model can be used as a culturally grounded way to develop clinical case conceptualizations to adapt and deliver psychological treatments for this under-served population.

Download Full-text

The Trauma Recovery Actions Checklist: Applying Mixed Methods to a Holistic Gender-Based Violence Recovery Actions Measure

Sexes ◽

10.3390/sexes2030029 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 363-377

Author(s):

Laura Sinko ◽

Limor Goldner ◽

Denise Marie Saint Arnault

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Trauma Recovery ◽

Gender Based Violence ◽

Financial Barriers ◽

Sequential Mixed Methods ◽

Recovery Models ◽

Gender Based ◽

And Coping

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) trauma recovery models have evolved in such a way that survivors are viewed as actively engaging in a multitude of strategies. In addition to seeking help and coping, survivors engage in diverse lifestyle, social, spiritual, and practical strategies to promote their health and wellbeing. This exploratory sequential mixed-methods study develops an instrument to measure the holistic recovery actions used by GBV survivors. The qualitative phase combined recovery action codes from interviews with 50 GBV survivors in three different survivor samples to create an initial six-concept 41-item Trauma Recovery Actions Checklist (TRAC). The quantitative psychometrics phase used data from 289 American GBV survivors. Results revealed a five-factor 35-item final version (sharing/connecting; building positive emotions; reflecting and creating healing spaces; establishing security; and planning the future). There were positive significant correlations between sharing/connecting and depression scores, and between sharing/connecting, reflecting, and building security with PTSD scores. No correlations were found between any recovery action type and the barriers to help-seeking subscales of Problem Management Beliefs, Discrimination, or Unavailability. However, there were significant negative correlations between Shame and Financial barriers and Sharing/Connecting, and between Feeling Frozen, Constraints, and Establishing Security. Implications for research, clinical practice and ways of understanding survivorship recovery are suggested.

Download Full-text

Trauma Recovery of Greek Women Who Have Experienced Gender-Based Violence: A Narrative Research

Sexes ◽

10.3390/sexes2030021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 256-271

Author(s):

Katerina Lathiotaki ◽

Kleio Koutra ◽

Nikoleta Ratsika ◽

Denise Saint Arnault

Keyword(s):

Help Seeking ◽

Physical Symptoms ◽

Trauma Recovery ◽

Help Seeking Behavior ◽

Gender Based Violence ◽

The Social ◽

Gastrointestinal Problems ◽

Seeking Behavior ◽

Violent Relationship ◽

Gender Based

In a society where women still suffer from oppression and injustice, research on gender-based violence (GBV) and trauma recovery path is considered a priority. Specifically, it was to be researched how the social and cultural obstacles can affect the help-seeking behavior of Greek women who experienced GBV. The data of this qualitative research were collected through narrative interviews and the analysis was carried out with the thematic analysis. The significant findings of the research were that the feelings of the women changed through the violent relationship, with the feelings of betrayal, guilt, and shame dominating. Moreover, the relative network was not notably utilized, while it seems that the women who utilized their social network were helped to evolve. Additionally, the feelings of guilt and shame stood out as an obstacle to help-seeking behavior and the functionality of the women was reduced on multiple levels during the period in which they experienced gender-based violence. Finally, the physical symptoms of the women during that period, such as musculoskeletal pain, numbing, and gastrointestinal problems, evoke great interest.

Download Full-text

A cross-sectional study to explore causes of domestic violence among married women

International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health ◽

10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20214596 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 5963

Author(s):

Pushti V. Vachhani ◽

Nishant R. Bhimani ◽

Premaram T. Choudhary ◽

Punit Patel

Keyword(s):

Domestic Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Married Women ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Gender Based Violence ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Seeking Behavior ◽

Gender Based

Background: Domestic violence, as with all forms of gender-based violence, represents a barrier to development due to its negative impact not only on women, but also on men, children and the wider community. Objective was to find out the causes of domestic violence. To trace the reasons for which abused women continue to stay in abusive relationship. To find out help-seeking behavior of abused women.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out among 600 ever married women of 15-49 years of age. All the information was gathered based on self-administered questionnaire. Confidentiality was maintained strictly.Results: Out of 600 respondents, 231 respondents were victims of domestic violence. Alcoholism of the husband was found the main cause of domestic violence as reported by a majority of about 29% of the respondents. Regarding reaction of victims to the violence, 168 of the respondents informed that they become silent. Total 159 respondents approached the informal or formal sources to seek help.Conclusions: Alcoholism of the husband was found the main cause of domestic violence against women. Majority of the victims could not resist or fight back. A majority of women were unaware about the relief available to the victims of domestic violence.

Download Full-text

Help seeking, trust and gender-based violence: social connections amongst displaced and non-displaced Yezidi women and men in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq

10.21203/rs.2.22180/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alison Strang ◽

Oonagh O’Brien ◽

Maggie Sandilands ◽

Rebecca Horn

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Humanitarian Assistance ◽

Social Connections ◽

Community Resources ◽

Kurdistan Region ◽

Gender Based Violence ◽

Northern Iraq ◽

The Social ◽

Gender Based

Abstract Background Conflict and displacement impact the social fabric of communities through both the disruption of social connections and the erosion of trust. Targeted humanitarian assistance requires understanding the continuing forms of social capital that shape patterns of help seeking in these circumstances. This is especially pertinent with issues such as gender-based violence (GBV) where trust and knowledge of support are major influences on accessing assistance. Methods A novel social mapping methodology was adopted amongst a Yezidi population displaced by ISIS 1 occupation and a neighbouring settled Yezidi population in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq in late 2016. Six participatory workshops were conducted to identify available resources. Subsequently, 51 individual interviews were conducted (segmented by gender and settlement status) to identify connectedness to, and trust in, the resources identified with respect to particular issues, including GBV. Results 90% of participants independently reported God as a key source of help in the previous six months, representing the most widely cited resource. Otherwise, familial and community resources were reported for all groups as the most accessed and trusted, with NGO (non-governmental organisation) provision being the least. Women drew more strongly upon familial resources than men ( Χ 2 =5.73, df=1, p=.017). There was an overall trend for reduced trust in resources in relation to the issue of gender-based violence. However, settled Yezidi women were 1.6 times more likely to trust community members and government services and 3.7 times more likely to trust NGOs on this issue than displaced women. Conclusions Mapping of social connections and trust provides valuable insight into the social capital available to support help seeking in populations of humanitarian concern. For these Yezidi populations, family, religious and community resources were the most widely utilised and trusted, although trust predominantly focused in the former two domains with respect to gender-based violence. Lack of trust appeared to be a major barrier to stronger engagement with available NGO provision, particularly amongst displaced women. The role of faith and religious resources for this population is clearly significant, and warrants an explicitly faith-sensitive approach to humanitarian assistance.

Download Full-text