The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has faced dual burdens of poor mental health and heightened levels of violence against women and children within the home. Interventions addressing family violence prevention may offer a path to mitigate mental distress within the eastern DRC. This exploratory analysis uses data from a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in North Kivu, DRC, assessing the impact of Safe at Home, a violence prevention intervention. Mental health was assessed at endline using the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. Statistical analyses employed multilevel linear regression.

Assuming successful randomization, impact of the Safe at Home intervention on mental health differed by participant gender. Women enrolled in the Safe at Home intervention reported statistically significant decreases in mental distress symptoms [β (95%CI) = −1.01 (−1.85, −0.17)], whereas men enrolled in Safe at Home had similar scores in mental distress to the control group [β (95%CI) = −0.12 (−1.32, 1.06)].

Ultimately, this exploratory analysis provides evidence of the potential for a family violence prevention model to improve women’s mental health in a low-resource, conflict-affected setting, although further research is needed to understand the impact on men’s mental health.

Although new mothers are at risk of heightened vulnerability for depressive symptoms, there is limited understanding regarding changes in maternal depressive symptoms over the course of the postpartum and early childhood of their child’s life among rural, low-income mothers from diverse racial backgrounds. This study examined distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms among rural low-income mothers during the first five years of their child’s life, at 6, 15, 24, and 58 months, using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292). Latent class growth analysis identified four distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, including Low-decreasing (50%; n = 622), Low-increasing (26%; n = 324), Moderate-decreasing (13%; n = 156), and Moderate-increasing (11%; n = 131) trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that higher perceived financial strain and intimate partner violence, and lower social support predicted higher-risk trajectories (Low-increasing, Moderate-decreasing, and Moderate-increasing) relative to the Low-decreasing trajectory. Compared to the Low-decreasing trajectory, lower neighborhood safety/quietness predicted to the Low-increasing trajectory. Moreover, lower social support predicted the Moderate-increasing trajectory, the highest-risk trajectory, compared to those in Moderate-decreasing. The current analyses underscore the heterogeneity on patterns of depressive symptoms among rural, low-income mothers, and that the role of both proximal and broader contexts contributing to distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms over early childhood.

This retrospective cohort study examined prosocial skills development in child welfare-involved children, how intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure explained heterogeneity in children’s trajectories of prosocial skill development, and the degree to which protective factors across children’s ecologies promoted prosocial skill development. Data were from 1,678 children from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being I, collected between 1999 and 2007. Cohort-sequential growth mixture models were estimated to identify patterns of prosocial skill development between the ages of 3 to 10 years. Four diverse pathways were identified, including two groups that started high (high subtle-decreasing; high decreasing-to-increasing) and two groups that started low (low stable; low increasing-to-decreasing). Children with prior history of child welfare involvement, preschool-age IPV exposure, school-age IPV exposure, or family income below the federal poverty level had higher odds of being in the high decreasing-to-increasing group compared with the high subtle-decreasing group. Children with a mother with greater than high school education or higher maternal responsiveness had higher odds of being in the low increasing-to-decreasing group compared with the low stable group. The importance of maternal responsiveness in fostering prosocial skill development underlines the need for further assessment and intervention. Recommendations for clinical assessment and parenting programs are provided.

While sexual violence should not be the prerequisite for legal abortion, expanding definitions of abuse to include reproductive coercion can open avenues of access to abortion following the Dobbs decision. Understanding the increased danger and compounding challenges of intimate partner violence can inform legislative initiatives, healthcare responses, and movements for reproductive justice.

Adaptation to intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure involves alterations in transdiagnostic processes including effortful control (EC), and yet little attention has been given to the ways such processes interact with family-level factors, such as caregivers’ psychopathology. This study used latent change score modeling to compare trajectories of EC and caregivers’ depressive (CD) symptoms between children and adolescents (N = 365) ages 7–17 who had witnessed IPV (IPV+; 45.3%) and those who had not (IPV−) across 3 years. Findings suggested that IPV exposure moderated relationships between EC and CD. CD was higher and EC was lower for IPV+ relative to IPV− participants, although there was significant variation around mean-level CD and EC in both groups. CD and EC were only linked for IPV+ participants, where higher baseline CD was associated with lower EC that lagged behind IPV− participants’ EC across the 3 years of the study. Rates of change for CD significantly varied for the IPV+ group only, indicating that individual difference factors interacted with IPV exposure to influence changes in CD. These findings inform literature on transdiagnostic adaptation processes and point to the potential utility of interventions to reduce IPV and CD in supporting EC in children and adolescents across contexts.

There is a demonstrated link between intimate partner violence (IPV) and pregnancy termination, and this association has received much attention in developed settings. Despite the high prevalence of IPV in Papua New Guinea (PNG), little is known about the association between these experiences and pregnancy termination. This study examined the association between IPV and pregnancy termination in PNG. The present study used population-based data from the PNG’s first Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2016–2018. The analysis involved women aged 15–49 years who were in intimate unions (married or co-habiting). We used binary logistic regression modelling to analyse the association between IPV and pregnancy termination. Results were reported as crude odds ratios (cOR) and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Overall, 6.3% of women involved in this study had ever terminated a pregnancy, and 6 in 10 women (61.5%) reported having experienced IPV in the last 12 months preceding the survey. Of those women who experienced IPV, 7.4% had ever terminated a pregnancy. Women who had experienced IPV had a 1.75 higher odds of reporting pregnancy termination (cOR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.29–2.37) than women who did not experience IPV. After controlling for theoretically and empirically relevant socio-demographic and economic factors, IPV remained a strong and significant determinant of pregnancy termination (aOR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.22–2.30). The strong association between IPV and pregnancy termination among women in intimate unions in PNG calls for targeted policies and interventions that address the high prevalence of IPV. The provision of comprehensive sexual reproductive health, public education, and awareness creation on the consequences of IPV, regular assessment, and referral to appropriate services for IPV may reduce the incidence of pregnancy termination in PNG.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) represents a significant public health concern. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) represent one risk factor for IPV, however, the results of existing research on the association between ACEs and IPV demonstrate mixed findings. The present research sought to meta-analytically examine the association between ACEs and (a) IPV perpetration and (b) IPV victimization. Moderator analyses were conducted to determine factors that may impact the association between ACEs and IPV involvement. Electronic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO in August of 2021. One-hundred and twenty-three records were screened for inclusion. All studies included a measure of ACEs and IPV victimization or perpetration. Among the 27 studies and 41 samples included in the meta-analysis, 65,330 participants were included. The results of the meta-analyses demonstrated that ACEs were positively associated with IPV perpetration and victimization. Significant methodological and measurement moderators further inform our understanding of ACEs and IPV involvement. The present meta-analyses demonstrates that trauma-informed approaches to IPV screening, prevention, and intervention may be useful, given that individuals who are involved with IPV may be more likely to possess a history of ACEs exposure.

More than half of all intimate partner homicides involve a firearm and firearms are frequently used by perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) to injure and threaten victims and survivors. Recent court decisions undermine important legal restrictions on firearm possession by IPV perpetrators, thus jeopardizing the safety of victims and survivors. This article reviews the history and recent developments in the law at the intersection of IPV and firearm violence and proposes a way forward through a health justice framework.

This paper evaluates the existing research on Stand Your Ground (SYG) laws in terms of the extent to which it has accounted for gender. In particular, we address (a) what the available evidence suggests are the gender-based impacts of SYG laws and (b) where, how, and why considerations of gender may be missing in available studies.

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are at risk for serious health consequences, and providing effective psychosocial interventions to support these individuals is a major global health challenge. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses in this field do not allow for clear conclusions about the efficacy of these interventions, owing to a narrow focus on specific subpopulations or intervention formats. This protocol presents a systematic review and meta-analysis, which will provide a comprehensive overview of the empirical evidence of various psychosocial interventions for survivors of IPV and investigate their efficacy in improving safety-related, mental health and psychosocial outcomes both overall and within homogeneous subgroups (trial registration: https://osf.io/4gp95). We will systematically search the literature databases PsycInfo, MEDLINE, Embase and CENTRAL. Randomised controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in increasing the safety or mental health of IPV survivors compared with a control group will be eligible. We will extract relevant data from eligible studies and assess study quality using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) tool. We will qualitatively summarise the results and we will calculate weighted effect sizes under random effect model assumption for the primary outcomes IPV, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. We will perform subgroup analyses to investigate the moderating effects of theoretical basis, delivery mode, intensity and setting of psychosocial interventions. The resultant overview of the current body of evidence for psychosocial interventions for IPV survivors is intended to inform future research and practice.

This study examines the relationship between personal experience with intimate partner violence (IPV) and political attitudes. I argue that by adopting salient legislation on violence against women, the state enables survivors to evaluate government performance on the basis of their ability to access resources for victims. As such, when survivors are unable to reach specialized public services, they might downgrade their evaluations of government performance. Focusing on Brazil and using survey data and qualitative interviews, this study finds that IPV survivors who have not used specialized services hold more negative views of government performance compared to nonvictims. Further analysis, including a series of placebo tests, lends additional support to the main results. This study has an intersectional component, as it also examines the relationship between race and access to services. These findings have implications for victims’ democratic rights and access to justice.