Disconnected lives: Women with intellectual disabilities in conflict with the law.

BACKGROUND: Women with intellectual/developmental disabilities in conflict with the law experience childhood trauma, substance abuse and intimate partner violence but continue to have difficulty accessing appropriate therapeutic services, both within correctional settings and upon discharge. The aim of this study is to explore women's service needs and to critically assess whether the available services are meeting their identified needs. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 women with intellectual/developmental disabilities who were in the Special Needs Unit of a women's correctional centre from December 2014 to March 2015. RESULTS: Women with intellectual/developmental disabilities struggle to manage the impact of intergenerational trauma, exacerbated by issues of substance abuse and addiction, poor coping skills and minimal education, all of which impact their sense of well-being. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the need for increasing trauma treatment for women with intellectual/developmental disabilities, and emphasizes the need for accessible intervention to facilitate coping, trauma processing and community integration.

Violence in young adolescents' relationships: a path model.

A structural equation model based on social cognitive theory was used to predict relationship violence from young adolescents' knowledge, self-efficacy, attitudes, and alternative conflict strategies (n = 143 male and 147 female grade 7-9 students). A direct causal effect was supported for violence-tolerant attitudes and psychologically aggressive (escalation/blame) strategies on physical violence against dating partners and friends. Knowledge and self-efficacy contributed to using reasoning-based strategies, but this reduced violence only in boys' friendships. Knowledge reduced violence-tolerant attitudes, thus reducing escalation/ blame and physical violence. Attitudes toward male and female dating violence (ATMDV and ATFDV) were indicators of general attitudes toward violence among non-dating students but ATFDV affected physical violence and ATMDV affected psychological aggression for both dating boys and girls.