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The psychological impact on mothers who have experienced domestic violence when navigating the family court system: a scoping review.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this scoping review was to synthesise the literature to identify what the psychological impacts of family court processes were on mothers who had experienced DFV. Twenty-five articles met inclusion criteria with four themes capturing the findings: Perpetrators using the system as a mode of coercive control; Secondary victimisation as a result of interacting with the system; Required to relive their abuse; and, Long-term psychological consequences of having engaged with the system. Key findings were that perpetrators manipulated the system to perpetrate further abuse and continue/reassert their control. Secondary re-victimisation was common, with poor knowledge of DFV and limited understanding of coercive control tactics and how these were employed by perpetrators by legal professionals identified as contributing factors. This review suggests that mothers who engage with the family court system experience a range of short- and long-term psychological impacts and court processes facilitate ongoing abuse by the perpetrator.

SUBMITTER: Wilde S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11305050 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The psychological impact on mothers who have experienced domestic violence when navigating the family court system: a scoping review.

Wilde Sage S Sheeran Nicola N Douglas Heather H

Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 20230704 4

The aim of this scoping review was to synthesise the literature to identify what the psychological impacts of family court processes were on mothers who had experienced DFV. Twenty-five articles met inclusion criteria with four themes capturing the findings: Perpetrators using the system as a mode of coercive control; Secondary victimisation as a result of interacting with the system; Required to relive their abuse; and, Long-term psychological consequences of having engaged with the system. Key ...[more]

PMID: 39118786

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Project description:ObjectivesThis scoping review aims to assess the situation of violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, mainly in Brazil.MethodsThis study consists of a Scoping Review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. To conduct this review, we mapped scientific evidence on domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inclusion criteria were: journal articles on domestic violence set in Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, in the context of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, published between March 2020 and June of 2021. Articles that were not published in journals, studies focusing on child violence or the elderly population, suicide-related approaches, editorials and letters to readers were excluded. The databases used were: National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Embase, COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease, Scopus Preview, Web of Science, LILAC's, Database of the best Evidence-Based Health (Epistemonikos) with the following strategic keywords: "domestic violence" "female'/exp OR female" "domestic violence AND women" "SARS-CoV-19") AND ("domestic violence") SARS-CoV-2" OR "2020-nCoV". The databases above were accessed in July 2021. The articles selected from the databases were synthetized following the double-check procedure and the topics that were most relevant to the subject discussed were separated. The articles used were in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.ResultsWe discussed domestic violence against women in the context of social isolation, showing a significant increase and highlighting aggravating factors - financial instability, exacerbation of the female workload, increase in drug and alcohol consumption, lack of access to care services - and statistics that demonstrate the significant increase in countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay and Brazil, especially in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, among other states. Despite the meaningful increase in the number of cases and the aggravating factors for domestic violence against women in Latin America and Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality of underreporting, resulting, among others, from limited legal, social and economic support and the lack of well-prepared intersectoral services may be a limitation in this scenario, since the situation can be even more acute. We presented measures adopted in Brazil and alternatives to confront the critical situation of domestic violence against women, aggravated by social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.The 18 most relevant articles were read twice by each author, following the "Double-Check" protocol. The articles used addressed important questions around the established goals: (a) characteristics of the current scenarios in Latin America and, specifically, in Brazil, with regard to violence against women; (b) factors that intensify this type of violence; (c) numbers that demonstrate an increase in cases; and finally (e) strategies to combat domestic violence against women. A total of 595 articles were found, then, based on the abstracts presented, 18 articles were used to write this scoping review.

Project description:BackgroundWorkplace violence against healthcare workers has been a well-known problem for more than 40 years. This problem is also relevant for prehospital personnel who are at risk of physical and/or psychological violence during work. Violence and threats of violence can have physical and psychological consequences, including personal challenges in their everyday life, use of sick days, reports, and the need for professional help. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the extent of and subsequent reporting of physical and psychological workplace violence toward the prehospital healthcare workers in Denmark in a two-year period. Moreover, we wanted to elucidate any possible effect of workplace violence on the private and professional lives of the prehospital healthcare personnel.MethodsA nation-wide survey where a validated anonymised questionnaire was directed to all of the approximately 4500 Danish prehospital healthcare workers.ResultsOut of 584 complete responses we found that 47.4% had experienced psychological violence on the job whereas 25.7% had experienced physical violence on the job within the past two years. The perpetrators were mainly patients or relatives of the patients. Physical violence was mostly reported as punching, pushing, and kicking, while psychological violence included threats of violence and other intimidation. After experiencing violence the respondents reported both physical and psychological harm, which for some prehospital healthcare workers had consequences for their professional and/or personal life. Furthermore, some prehospital healthcare workers reported that the violence had resulted in some patients receiving worse treatment afterwards. We found that violence was rarely reported to either employers or the police, because respondents believed the events were not important enough to merit reporting, or because a report was not considered to make any difference to the healthcare worker. The survey demonstrates that, as a minimum, at least one healthcare worker in 30 and one healthcare worker in 16 has been exposed to episodes of violence and threats of violence within the last two years.ConclusionWe suggest that the prehospital organisations emphasise reporting future episodes of physical and/or psychological violence. Knowing the extent of the problem is a prerequisite for addressing, debriefing, and/or other psychological follow-up.Trial registrationN/A.

Project description:BackgroundExperience of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is associated with mental illness. Advocacy has little effect on mental health outcomes of female DVA survivors and there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of psychological interventions for this population.ObjectiveTo test effectiveness of a psychological intervention delivered by advocates to DVA survivors.Design, masking, setting, participantsPragmatic parallel group individually randomized controlled trial of normal DVA advocacy vs. advocacy + psychological intervention. Statistician and researchers blinded to group assignment. Setting: specialist DVA agencies; two UK cities. Participants: Women aged 16 years and older accessing DVA services.InterventionEight specialist psychological advocacy (SPA) sessions with two follow up sessions.MeasurementsPrimary outcomes at 12 months: depression symptoms (PHQ-9) and psychological distress (CORE-OM). Primary analysis: intention to treat linear (logistic) regression model for continuous (binary) outcomes.Results263 women recruited (78 in shelter/refuge, 185 in community), 2 withdrew (1 community, control group; 1 intervention, refuge group), 1 was excluded from the study for protocol violation (community, control group), 130 in intervention and 130 in control groups. Recruitment ended June 2013. 12-month follow up: 64%. At 12-month follow up greater improvement in mental health of women in the intervention group. Difference in average CORE-OM score between intervention and control groups: -3.3 points (95% CI -5.5 to -1.2). Difference in average PHQ-9 score between intervention and control group: -2.2 (95% CI -4.1 to -0.3). At 12 months, 35% of the intervention group and 55% of the control group were above the CORE-OM -2clinical threshold (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.64); 29% of the intervention group and 46% of the control group were above the PHQ-9 clinical threshold (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.81).Limitations64% retention at 12 months.ConclusionsAn eight-session psychological intervention delivered by DVA advocates produced clinically relevant improvement in mental health outcomes compared with normal advocacy care.Trial registrationISRCTN registry ISRCTN58561170 Original Research 3675/3750.

Project description:BackgroundViolence and other adversities commonly co-occur, yet are usually investigated individually. The primary objectives of this paper are to investigate: (i) the relationship between maternal exposure to violence (including childhood abuse and intimate partner violence) and postpartum mental and physical health; and (ii) the extent to which exposure to violence and poor maternal mental and physical health are associated with children's emotional-behavioral difficulties.MethodsProspective pregnancy cohort (n = 1507) followed up to 4 year postpartum. Validated measures used: Composite Abuse Scale; Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, SF-36, Child Maltreatment History Self Report; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to investigate associations between maternal childhood abuse, intimate partner violence (IPV), maternal health and child emotional and behavioral difficulties at age 4.OutcomesTwo out of five women (41%) reported abuse in childhood, and almost one in three (29%) reported IPV during the first four years of motherhood. Women reporting both physical and sexual childhood abuse had markedly raised odds of IPV and poor physical and mental health at all time points (pregnancy, first year postpartum and four year postpartum). For the index child, violence exposures (maternal childhood abuse or IPV) and poor maternal physical or mental health were associated with higher odds of emotional/behavioral difficulties at age four. In multivariable models (adjusted for child gender and maternal age), cumulative exposures (multiple violence exposures or poor maternal mental or physical health at multiple time points) each independently added to increased odds of emotional-behavioral difficulties. Children of mothers who reported a history of childhood abuse but were not exposed to IPV had odds of difficulties similar to children of mothers not reporting any violence exposure, suggesting resilient outcomes where violence experiences are not repeated in the next generation.InterpretationThe clustering of risk (child and adult violence experiences) and the accumulation of risk within families (IPV, poor maternal health, child difficulties) highlight the need for effective early intervention to limit or ameliorate the impact of violence across the lifespan, and to break the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage.

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The psychological impact on mothers who have experienced domestic violence when navigating the family court system: a scoping review.

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The psychological impact on mothers who have experienced domestic violence when navigating the family court system: a scoping review.

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