Association of Daily Activities With Maternal-Child Bonding, Parenting Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Parenting Behaviors Among Survivors Living in an Intimate Partner Violence Shelter: A Daily Diary Study.

Following a traumatic event such as intimate partner violence (IPV), survivors often experience stress related to the violence. These high levels of stress related to IPV can be associated with the daily activities of survivors and their relationships with their children, such as maternal-child bonding. The purpose of the current study is to explore the relationship between daily activities, daily stress levels, parenting self-efficacy and behaviors, and maternal-child bonding among survivors living in an IPV shelter using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology. Twenty-five mothers living in an IPV shelter in two states in the Southern United States completed a baseline survey and completed electronic daily diaries for 14 days. Higher daily stress was associated with the number of times the mothers met with the case manager. Higher daily stress was also related to lower parenting self-efficacy. The number of case management appointments and legal appointments were positively correlated with a higher bonding score. More social support was associated with more positive parenting. IPV and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were not significantly associated with maternal-child bonding, parenting behaviors, or parenting self-efficacy. Findings suggest that screening for maternal support may be particularly important for positive bonding and positive parenting. Findings also lend preliminary insight into practical places where service providers could act to protect the bonding process or mitigate risks to impede it. Future research should include objective data about the mother's emotions and her interactive behavior with her child. There is also a need to consider how federal programs fund and incentivize service providers to focus on mother-child dyads and how they can tailor services that promote bonding.

The experiences and perceptions of campus resource utilization by college students with childhood domestic violence exposure histories.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the campus resource utilization experiences of university students with childhood domestic violence exposure (CDV) histories. Participants: 368 students attending a large, flagship, land-grant, predominantly White university in the Southeastern United States. Methods: Participants completed a web-based survey with variables including CDV, campus resource utilization and perceptions of said resources, and participant resource suggestions. Results: Most students utilized at least one health-related campus resource, with the student health and counseling centers being the most common and helpful. Suggested areas for institutional and service provider growth include enhanced advertisement and accessibility for existing resources and added support groups. Conclusions: College campuses provide unique opportunities to support young adults with CDV histories. Tailoring programming to students with CDV histories has the potential to improve student's success in and beyond college.

Living in an Intimate Partner Violence Shelter During a Pandemic: Perspectives from Advocates and Survivors.

PURPOSE: With state-wide quarantine policies during the COVID-19 pandemic like those implemented in the state of Texas, intimate partner violence (IPV) shelter staff were forced to incorporate new safety measures to keep survivors and advocates safe. To understand the impact of these adaptations fully, authors interviewed shelter staff and residents to capture both of their experiences living and working in the same shelter during the height of the coronavirus pandemic (summer 2020) to understand how changes in policy and procedure in shelters impacted survivors and advocates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative phenomenological design was utilized to collect and analyze data from 10 staff and 10 survivors to develop both a textual and a structural description of participant experiences living in an IPV shelter. RESULTS: The current study captured the survivors' and advocates' perspectives related to the 1) vacillating views of shelter social distancing and quarantine policies, 2) shelter occupancy and staffing unpredictability, 3) the broader challenges related to environmental stressors and 4) mobility challenges. DISCUSSION: Results of this study highlight factors related to interpersonal relationships within the shelter and structural factors of shelter which contributed to stress for participants. CONCLUSION: The coronavirus is continuing to present challenges for shelters. Implications can be drawn from provider and client experiences that can inform policies and procedures for future health crises, including the need to mitigate environmental stress and transportation challenges, as well as considerations for maintaining social support should social distancing be necessary in future epidemics.

Presenting Methodological Resilience for Conducting Research with Vulnerable Populations During Current and Future Pandemics: A Case Study with IPV Shelters and Survivors in the United States.

Purpose: In this brief report, we highlight the challenges that we experienced while attempting to conduct primary data collection with intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors living in an IPV emergency shelter throughout the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and our strategies to overcome them. Method: In the summer of 2021, we began collecting data on a study investigating maternal-child bonding while living in IPV emergency shelters. We proposed a 14-day electronic daily diary methodology with follow-up semi-structured interview. The purpose of the study was to understand what factors affect maternal-child bonding to support survivors' relationships with their children while living in an emergency shelter. Results: We encountered two global obstacles to study implementation: the Institutional Review Board (IRB) pausing in-person data collection and low IPV shelter utilization. In what we term methodological resilience, we engaged in innovative and flexible team work to overcome these barriers. Specific strategies centered on creating an entirely remote data collection process and expanding our geographic area and participant eligibility criteria. Conclusions: Implications for researchers include greater communication with IRB offices, planning for multi-state recruitment, triangulated recruitment methods, reminder texts for participants and incremental incentives to ensure continued engagement with the study.

Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of Culturally Responsive Domestic Violence Measures.

Domestic violence (DV) is a pervasive public health issue due to its high prevalence and the adverse effects it can have on individuals. Standardized measures can fail to account for within-group differences that are salient among diverse populations. The current review aims to systematically review and organize the psychometric studies of culturally responsive DV measures. The goal of the review is to inform researchers and practitioners about the validity and reliability of the existing measures to facilitate measure selection. Studies were included if they were validation studies of a DV measure, published in English in a peer-reviewed journal, demonstrated cultural responsivity, and provided evidence of validity or reliability. A total of seven studies were identified. Findings from this review showed that most participants were from South Asia or were South Asian immigrants. Some culturally specific tactics included being treated like a servant, eating last, being burned, and in-laws abuse. Most measures included in this review demonstrated compelling evidence of validity and reliability. More research is needed to develop and validate culturally responsive measures with distinctly diverse populations. Valid and reliable culturally responsive measures can be helpful for DV and non-DV service providers to precisely assess DV and provide appropriate services while documenting accurate DV prevalence rates.

The Relationship Between Children's Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence and an Emotional-Behavioral Disability: A Scoping Review.

Children's exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is an adverse childhood experience that often results in academic, behavior, and mental health difficulties. This study reviewed the empirical studies examining the relationship between children's exposure to IPV and an emotional-behavioral disability (EBD). Studies were included in the review if they examined the relationship between exposure to IPV and EBD among children under 18. This research identified three empirical studies that analyzed the relationship between exposure to IPV and EBD. The review demonstrated that few studies had been conducted that explored the relationship between children's exposure to IPV and EBD and that most of the extant studies are dated. Findings from this review showed that children exposed to IPV were more likely to have EBD compared to other disabilities such as a learning disability, hearing disability, speech and language disability, and an intellectual disability. Higher frequency of violence exposure was associated with EBD. Practice implications include assessing children's functioning at school and discussing with families or caregivers the option of requesting an evaluation for EBD for children with severe emotional or behavioral difficulties. Special education evaluators assessing children for EBD should consider screening for children's exposure to IPV and providing resources for IPV. Future research should conceptualize the full range of IPV experiences and collect exposure data from children directly using a validated measure.

Facilitators of Formal Help-Seeking for Adult Survivors of IPV in the United States: A Systematic Review.

A survivor's decision to engage with formal services for experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) is influenced by factors at the individual, interpersonal, and sociocultural levels. Understanding factors that facilitate survivors' choice to seek services could be beneficial to formal service providers including community agencies, health professionals, and the criminal justice system, providing guidance toward the development and implementation of accessible services for survivors of IPV. This systematic review of the literature aims to identify key factors that facilitate survivors' formal help-seeking. Ten electronic databases were searched for key terms related to help-seeking from formal services and facilitators of formal help-seeking. Articles were included in the review if the studies were conducted in the United States, focused on adults with experiences of IPV, and discussed facilitators of formal help-seeking. A total of 1,155 studies were initially identified, and after screening, 24 were included in the review. Seven factors were identified including provider knowledge, support, accessibility, desire to provide protection and to prevent future violence, and other factors such as knoweldge of and desire for services, policy factors, and personal factors. Findings demonstrate a need for more research on the facilitators of help-seeking among East Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern survivors living in the United States, as well as male-identified, trans, and gender nonconforming survivors. The review also indicates a need for culturally sensitive and accessible services that support survivors and the importance of raising awareness of the services and resources available for survivors.

Survivors' Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence and Shelter Utilization During COVID-19.

This paper examines the effects of COVID-19 on service-engaged female survivors of IPV and makes recommendations for service providers based on these survivors' voices. The researchers adopted an exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative approach to inquiry due to the novelty of the research questions during the early days of the COVID-19 in March 2020. Semi-structured interviews with service-engaged survivors were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding processes. Two categories arose from our qualitative questions. The first category, related to experiences with service providers, included the themes of varying levels of support and isolation. Within the theme of isolation, survivors discussed both positive and negative aspects of isolation. The second category refers to the impact of COVID-19 on survivors' daily lives and focused on the theme of escalation. The theme of escalation had two subthemes 1) escalation of life-generated risks and 2) escalation of partner-generated risks. Given that the pandemic will continue until vaccines are fully distributed and that future public health emergencies may mirror many of the challenges identified in the current context, survivors residing at home will continue to need services, and agencies will continue to need additional resources to provide them. Therefore, we discuss recommendations that can have a bearing on services offered in the future.

Exposure to IPV among Children in the Child Welfare System and an Emotional-Behavioral Disability: the Role of Maternal Depression and Social Support.

This study examines the relationship between children's exposure to IPV and EBD among children involved in the child welfare system for suspected maltreatment (both substantiated and unsubstantiated). It specifically examines how children's trauma symptoms, maternal depression, and maternal social support may impact the relationship between exposure to IPV and EBD. This study uses structural equation modeling with data from the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing to examine the relationship between exposure to IPV and EBD among 989 children (ages 8-17) involved in the child welfare system. Moderated mediation was employed to examine whether children's trauma symptoms mediate the relationship between IPV exposure and EBD and whether differences in maternal depression and social support impact such mediation effect. Child trauma symptoms and maternal social support were significantly related to EBD. The current study highlights the relationship between children's trauma symptoms and EBD among children in the child welfare system. The study also provides preliminary evidence for maternal social support as a protective factor for children developing EBD. Implications of this research include providing interventions as well as increasing maternal social support to potentially reduce the likelihood of children developing EBD.

The Role of Social Support in the Link Between Economic Abuse and Economic Hardship.

More data is needed about the pathways through which intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts the economic well-being of survivors. The current study assesses the moderating influence of social support on the association between economic abuse (EA) and economic hardship. Female participants (n = 435) were recruited to participate in a web-based survey which included standardized measures of EA, other forms of IPV, domains of social support, and economic hardship. Analysis included bivariate and multivariate regression with an investigation into interaction effects.Experiencing EA was significantly correlated with economic hardship, even with extent of physical and emotional IPV controlled. Both tangible and appraisal support had significant negative association with extent of material hardship. Significant interactions between forms of social support and economic abuse were observed. For those at high levels of economic abuse, support had less influence on economic hardship. A mix of direct economic aid, advocacy, education and support could provide a blueprint for addressing the economic hardship experiences of community-dwelling survivors of economic abuse. A comprehensive response to EA requires interventions aimed directly at economically controlling and exploitative tactics, including credit building, individual economic advocacy, and education. Interventions that seek to enhance survivors' access to social support may be necessary but not sufficient to buffer the impacts of violence on survivors' economic outcomes.

A Pilot Study of a Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program With Karen Refugees.

While teen dating violence (TDV) prevention programs generally report changes in participants' attitudes and mixed findings about changes in behavior, little is known about the impact of TDV programs on ethnic minority youth. This study examined the effectiveness of Safe Dates, an evidence-based TDV prevention program, in educating 21 resettled Karen refugee youth from Burma. Findings indicated changes in attitudes toward violence occurred from pretest to follow-up. Years living in the United States was significantly related to pretest and posttest attitudes. More research about TDV is needed among Karen youth with attention given to the role of acculturation on TDV attitudes.