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Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

BACKGROUND: Men and women’s perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV) within crisis-affected populations are not well understood. This mixed-methods study examined the frequency of IPV against women in urban Cote d’Ivoire, and qualitatively explored how men and women perceive the impact of vari...

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Autores principales: Shuman, Sara J., Falb, Kathryn L., Cardoso, Lauren F., Cole, Heather, Kpebo, Denise, Gupta, Jhumka
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27310143
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157348
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author Shuman, Sara J.
Falb, Kathryn L.
Cardoso, Lauren F.
Cole, Heather
Kpebo, Denise
Gupta, Jhumka
author_facet Shuman, Sara J.
Falb, Kathryn L.
Cardoso, Lauren F.
Cole, Heather
Kpebo, Denise
Gupta, Jhumka
author_sort Shuman, Sara J.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Men and women’s perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV) within crisis-affected populations are not well understood. This mixed-methods study examined the frequency of IPV against women in urban Cote d’Ivoire, and qualitatively explored how men and women perceive the impact of various forms of IPV on health, everyday activities, and feelings of shame. METHODS: A survey was administered to Ivorian women (N = 80) to measure the frequency of IPV, and ten focus group discussions were conducted with women (n = 46) and men (n = 45) to explore perceptions of different forms of IPV, including its impacts on disruptions to health, everyday activities, and experiences of shame. RESULTS: Half of all surveyed women (53.6%) reported past year exposure to physical, sexual, or emotional IPV. Of the multiple types of violence, emotional IPV was most common (46.4%), followed by sexual IPV (21.7%) and physical IPV (17.4%). Focus group participants identified additional forms of violence including economic IPV and community discrimination. Lack of financial resources and unemployment were common problems among crisis-affected women and were described as an underlying source of IPV. Both women and men reported that shame and stigma play a large role in how women experience the repercussions of IPV, regardless of the form of violence, with public episodes of IPV almost always seen as more detrimental than private episodes of IPV. CONCLUSIONS: These results underscore the need for increased social support mechanisms for women to reduce the shame, stigma, and isolation associated with their experiences. The creation of safe and supportive spaces for women to talk about and challenge social norms may be an important first step in reducing community shaming and the secrecy that often surrounds IPV. Safe spaces along with broader societal outreach, including challenging men’s social positions and creating opportunities for increasing economic resources can, in turn potentially decrease the frequency of IPV and its deleterious impacts on a woman’s well-being
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spelling pubmed-49111012016-07-06 Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire Shuman, Sara J. Falb, Kathryn L. Cardoso, Lauren F. Cole, Heather Kpebo, Denise Gupta, Jhumka PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Men and women’s perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV) within crisis-affected populations are not well understood. This mixed-methods study examined the frequency of IPV against women in urban Cote d’Ivoire, and qualitatively explored how men and women perceive the impact of various forms of IPV on health, everyday activities, and feelings of shame. METHODS: A survey was administered to Ivorian women (N = 80) to measure the frequency of IPV, and ten focus group discussions were conducted with women (n = 46) and men (n = 45) to explore perceptions of different forms of IPV, including its impacts on disruptions to health, everyday activities, and experiences of shame. RESULTS: Half of all surveyed women (53.6%) reported past year exposure to physical, sexual, or emotional IPV. Of the multiple types of violence, emotional IPV was most common (46.4%), followed by sexual IPV (21.7%) and physical IPV (17.4%). Focus group participants identified additional forms of violence including economic IPV and community discrimination. Lack of financial resources and unemployment were common problems among crisis-affected women and were described as an underlying source of IPV. Both women and men reported that shame and stigma play a large role in how women experience the repercussions of IPV, regardless of the form of violence, with public episodes of IPV almost always seen as more detrimental than private episodes of IPV. CONCLUSIONS: These results underscore the need for increased social support mechanisms for women to reduce the shame, stigma, and isolation associated with their experiences. The creation of safe and supportive spaces for women to talk about and challenge social norms may be an important first step in reducing community shaming and the secrecy that often surrounds IPV. Safe spaces along with broader societal outreach, including challenging men’s social positions and creating opportunities for increasing economic resources can, in turn potentially decrease the frequency of IPV and its deleterious impacts on a woman’s well-being Public Library of Science 2016-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4911101/ /pubmed/27310143 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157348 Text en © 2016 Shuman et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shuman, Sara J.
Falb, Kathryn L.
Cardoso, Lauren F.
Cole, Heather
Kpebo, Denise
Gupta, Jhumka
Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
title Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
title_full Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
title_fullStr Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
title_full_unstemmed Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
title_short Perceptions and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
title_sort perceptions and experiences of intimate partner violence in abidjan, côte d'ivoire
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27310143
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157348
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