Intimate Partner Violence and its Mental Health Implications Amid COVID-19 Lockdown: Findings Among Nigerian Couples

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110152
Author(s):  
Margaret Isioma Ojeahere ◽  
Sahmicit Kankemwa Kumswa ◽  
Frances Adiukwu ◽  
Janet Punyit Plang ◽  
Yetunde Folake Taiwo

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been identified as a global health problem with increasing mental health consequences. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Nigeria, couples were compelled to spend more time together, regardless of their pre-existing challenges. Our study aims to determine the prevalence of IPV, its forms, and mental health implications among Nigerian households amid the COVID-19 lockdown. A cross-sectional study was implemented which used the snowball sampling technique to recruit 474 participants across 31 states in Nigeria. A semi-structured online questionnaire was distributed using the WhatsApp platform. The relationship between IPV, its forms, and associated factors were analyzed using descriptive analysis and logistic regression with significant value at p ≤ .05 and confidence interval of 95%. Majority (98.1%) of the participants had at least a college degree and 90.1% were employed. Overall prevalence of IPV ranged from 7.2% to 13.5%. Using the lockdown as the landmark, higher prevalence was found before than during the lockdown across physical, emotional, financial, and sexual forms of IPV. Emotional form had the highest prevalence both before and during the lockdown with 11.4% and 3.8% respectively. Furthermore, 22.6% of participants reported that the lockdown affected their mental health. Hopelessness, feelings of failure, being irritable, and constantly under strain were psychological symptoms significantly associated with IPV amid the lockdown. Decreased prevalence of IPV were found in the early phase of the pandemic, suggesting that couples can experience less partner violence during periods of confinement. Our study supports existing evidence that forms of IPV have negative mental health consequences on abused partners.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Amini ◽  
Maryam Heidary ◽  
Hamidreza Daneshparvar ◽  
Homa Sadeghi Avval Shahr ◽  
Abbas Mehran ◽  
...  

Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem in all societies that affects all aspects of the victim’s health, especially mental health. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between intimate partner violence and mental health among Iranian women who referred to the Forensic Medicine Center in Tehran. This cross-sectional study was done on 196 married women who referred to the south center of Forensic Medicine in Tehran. Data were collected in 2013 by using three questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire, CTS-2, and GHQ-28. Data analyzed by using SPSS-14 software. The age of participants was 29.9±6.3 years (range 18-57 years). Most women were housekeepers (73%) with moderate economic status (48.5%). Physical violence had the highest mean score (37.29±16.80); and after that, highest mean scores are related to Psychological violence 29.37±7.01, verbal violence 14.83±8.15, Physical violence leading to injury 14.47±6.85, and sexual violence 8.38±7.36, respectively. Verbal violence didn’t show any relation with all subscales of mental health. The somatic and anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated to total, and all violence subscales score (P<0.001). Also, social function was correlated to total violence score (P=0.032), Sexual (P=0.002), and psychological violence (P=0.025). Depression symptoms were correlated to total violence score (P<0.001), physical leading to damage violence (P<0.001), Sexual violence (P<0.001), Psychological violence (P=0.002), and physical violence (P<0.001). Our results showed IPV is related to the mental health of battered women, but verbal violence didn’t show any statistical relationship with somatic, anxiety, and depression symptoms and social function.


Author(s):  
Eugene Kinyanda ◽  
Helen A Weiss ◽  
Margaret Mungherera ◽  
Patrick Onyango-Mangen ◽  
Emmanuel Ngabirano ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amare Deribew Tadegge

There are very few population-based studies on the mental health consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) from Ethiopia. This study was conducted among 510 ‘ever partnered’ women in Agaro Town in February 2007. Mental distress and depression were measured using self-reporting questionnaires and Kessler's Scales. All types of IPV (physical, sexual and emotional abuses) were significantly associated with mental distress and depression. Women who suffered from physical, sexual and emotional abuses were more likely to have mental distress. We recommend using information education communications to educate the community and thereby preventing IPV and the mental health consequences.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Grasskemper ◽  
Diogo Costa

This work explores the cross-sectional associations between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and anxiety, depressive symptoms, stress symptoms, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), in a representative sample of German adult men (n=2,789) and women (n=3,149), and considers their involvement as victims or perpetrators of physical and psychological IPV. In this sample, physical IPV victimization was associated with anxiety and stress among men. Psychological IPV victimization was associated with depression among men, and with stress among both sexes. Physical IPV perpetration was significantly associated only with women depressive and stress symptoms. Psychological IPV perpetration was associated with stress for both men and women. The mental component of HRQoL was significantly lower for men and women involved in any type of IPV. These results support the need to consider the mental health consequences of IPV involvement for both men and women.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052097622
Author(s):  
Abay Woday Tadesse ◽  
Setegn Mihret Tarekegn ◽  
Gebeyaw Biset Wagaw ◽  
Muluken Dessalegn Muluneh ◽  
Ayesheshim Muluneh Kassa

Ethiopia has taken unprecedented preventive measures, such as confinement to home and closure of schools and offices to halt the spread of Corona virus pandemic in the country. Unfortunately, such orders may have been associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) against women but there is no study conducted to assess the magnitude of IPV during the lock-downs in the country. Thus, this study intended to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of IPV against women during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on sample of 617 married or cohabited women. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to identify and enroll women who are married. A logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of IPV among women and all statistical analyses were carried out using STATA 14.2. In this study, amongst the 589 married women who were included in the analysis, 22.4% [95% CI: 19.1%, 25.9%] were experienced at least one form of IPV. Additionally, 11.0%, 20.0%, and 13.8% of women also experienced physical, psychological, and sexual IPVs respectively. After adjusting for covariate; being illiterate [AOR=2.37: 95% CI 1.29, 4.35], having illiterate husband [AOR=2.67: 95% CI 1.36, 5.21], having substance user husband (alcohol, chat or cigarettes) [AOR=2.75: 95% CI 1.42, 5.34], and community tolerant attitude to violence [AOR=2.97: 95% CI 1.17, 7.61] were the independent predictors of IPV amongst married women. In conclusion, the prevalence of IPV among married women was comparable to the national pre-COVID figure of IPV. Therefore, national and regional governments should work toward enhancing gender equality, coupled with addressing risk factors at multiple levels, using community- and institution-based approaches to prevent IPV and to specifically achieve SDG5 of eliminating violence against women by 2030.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052098425
Author(s):  
Sanaa Abujilban ◽  
Lina Mrayan ◽  
Shaher Hamaideh ◽  
Salwa Obeisat ◽  
Jalal Damra

In Jordan, women experience considerable levels of different types of violence. The emerging data from different countries indicate that intimate partner violence (IPV) has intensified since the COVID-19 outbreak. The main purpose of the current study is to find out whether there is any difference in the incidence of IPV during and before the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine and whether any sociodemographical factors are related to the incidence of IPV against pregnant women during quarantine. A cross-sectional, correlational design was in this study. The snowball sampling technique was adopted to select the participants, which produced a nonrepresentative sample of 215 pregnant women. The participants completed the Arabic version of the World Health Organization’s Domestic Violence Questionnaire Screening Tool (DVQST). We found that women were exposed to different types of IPV before and during the quarantine. The most prevalent form of IPV was control and humiliation ( n 172, 80%) and the least prevalent was sexual violence (( n 33, 15.3%), ( n 24, 11.2%), respectively). However, there were statistically significant lower DVQST scores during the COVID-19 quarantine than before the quarantine. All types of IPV are significantly correlated with each other and with relationship problems (marital conflict, verbal fighting, understanding each other). While the findings are not generalizable to the general population of pregnant women in Jordan because the sample consisted only of women of high socioeconomic status due to the use of a nonprobability sampling technique, national campaigns should be developed and implemented in order to reduce IPV and change community behaviors and attitudes toward violence against women. It is also recommended that policymakers develop plans to help pregnant women during quarantine by, for example, training care providers on how to access vulnerable women.


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