Social Research Intimate Partner Violence

Question: Describe about the Social Research for Intimate Partner Violence. Answer: Problem Statement The problem statement is Whether Community based intervention has been successful for Women who have been exposed to Intimate Partner Violence. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a public health problem. The intimate partner can be defined as a person with whom the women had a close personal relationship. The IPV can be divided into four groups (cdc.gov, 2016): Physical Violence: Where their use of physical force with intention to cause death, permanent injury leading to disability. Sexual Violence: Any form of sexual violence which might be either attempted or completed. Staking: A process in which the person repeatedly gives attention and contacts the women with the intention to cause to fear or concern for safety. Psychological Aggression: The use of communication processes (verbal or non-verbal) to emotionally or mentally harm the person. The present research is attempting to understand the level of depression, the scale of IPV and also the level of womens parenting. The factors where related with positive parenting and also to the level of depression. The study attempted to understand the changes in the values of the independent variables over time. The women were provided with Moms empowerment program (MEP). The MEP program is an intervention program wherein the women are provided with skills in parenting. In addition the women were provided with suitable places so that they could discuss their depressions and their parenting skills. The present research attempts to investigate the role of community based intervention in reducing the level of depression of IPV women. In addition it also investigates the role of the community based intervention in parenting for IPV women. Research Design In the present study the sequential assignment process was used. The study at the allocation level used 181 women. The first seven women were assigned to the M+C group. The second were assigned to the CO condition and last seven were assigned to the CG condition. The process was followed till all the women who had been selected for the study had not been assigned. All women had been selected previously based on the given criteria. All the women had had a past of IPV. Besides this the women were selected at random through the process of interview. Hence there was no pre-selection bias. Similarly during the process till time 2 there were no changes in the number of women in different groups. Hence, there was no maturation for internal validity. In addition the dependent variables were measure using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Anxiety and Parental Child rearing Styles Scale and Severity of Violence against Women Scales (SVAWS). In the measurement of the 2nd interview no changes in the sample size took place. During the measurement of the 3rd interview there was change in the sample size of all three groups. Since the study consisted of the efficacy of a community based intervention thus the changes in the independent variables resulted in a change in the dependent variables over time. The results of the interventions showed that there was a change in the value of the mean values of the dependent variables from time 1 to time 2 in the M+C and CO group. Hence, the study can be attributed to a causal inference. Sampling The data was collected from women who had been subject to IPV. The data was collected from women living in five urban locations of Michigan. The women were recruited by the use of newspaper advertisements and flyers. The advertisements were placed in social service agencies and also at shelters for women of IPV. The shelters provided the moms empowerment program (MEP). The program had the facility for a separate room within the existing mental health clinic, a setting for education purposes and also an outreach center. The study criteria stated that the women selected had a physical conflict with an intimate partner within the last one year. In addition the women should have a child between the age group of 6 to 12 years. The selected women were selected to be interviewed and thus join a support group. A total of 181 women were selected for the study. Thus we find that the sample consisted of only those women who had been subjected to IPV. The disadvantage of the sampling was that it selected women from only five locations of Michigan. Also the sample was limited to women who responded to the advertisement and or flyers. In addition, the study was limited to women who had subjected o violence within the last one year. The women came from different racial as well as educational background. The women also had different marital status. Hence, we find that the advantage of the sample was that it consisted of women from all the strata of the society. Measurement The study investigated the demographic profile, educational background, the social status of the women. The demographic profile studied was the age, race, and level of education, the income of the women and the present social status of the women. The dependent variables studied were the levels of IPV, depression and the parenting. The IPV was measured using the Severity of Violence against women scale. The scale had six items to measure the womens emotional experience, 30 items to measure the amount of physical harm for the women and six items for measuring the level of physical violence endured by the women. The depression level was measured using the Beck depression inventory (BDI). The Beck depression inventory consists of 21 questions relating to womens depression. These 21 questions relate to the amount of depression. The responses to the BDI were on likert scale. The sum of the scores of the different question was taken as the level of depression. The different levels of depression were minimal, mild, moderate and severe depression. The womens parenting skills was measured using the Anxiety and Parental Child rearing Styles Scale. The scale measures different characteristics of Parenting. The characteristics include the effectiveness of parenting, the level of warmth in parenting and the level of child centered level of parenting. The scale measure the level of belief of the parent in keeping the child out of danger, the level to which the women believe the importance of controlling the child and also the influence of the program on the child. Data Collection The data was collected through the process of Interview. The interviewing process is a type of Primary data collection technique (Shaughnessy, Zechmeister Zechmeister, 2012). The primary data collection technique consists of the observational technique. In the present study the non-participant form of observational technique is used. The interview method consisted of responses from oral-verbal communication. The advantage of the study is that the interviewer asks the interviewee direct questions. The advantage of personal interview is that we can either have predetermined questions or the interviewer can be flexible in asking the questions. The advantage of having a personal interview is that he can gain in-depth information about the person. Personal interviews to a great extent depend on the ability of the interviewer. He can gather a great deal of personal information. The interviewer has the flexibility of structuring the questionnaire. In addition to the above there is less amo unt of missing data. The disadvantage of the interview process is that it is a time consuming and expensive process. Sometimes the information provided may be biased in nature. In the present situation some women may not be more willing to divulge information. Thus, to bring out the required information the interviewer has to have a great deal of knowledge. The interviewer should have a complete knowledge of the background of the study to bring out the required information. In a social context people are not very forthcoming to divulge information. Women of IPV might not have responded to other forms of data collection like mail, email surveys. Thus the results might not have been the same as the present process. Cultural Consideration The women selected for the study were all victims of IPV. They had a mean age of 33 years. 57% of the women selected for the study were white with 35% being African American and 8% belonged to other groups. The average monthly income of the women was from $1,366. There was considerable variation in the income of the women. Most of the women had completed high school studies (84.6%). 23% of the women in the study were single, 30% were separated. 19% of the women were married, 9% were living with a partner. At the time of the study 4% of the women were living in a shelter. The average age of the children of the women was 8.49 years. The women in the study, especially those of the M+C group were kept in a shelter for the first 10 weeks of the study. The first ten weeks of the study showed that there were significant differences in the BDI and Parenting score of the M+C group. The scores of both the scales showed significant changes from the baseline scores. Hence it can be inferred that the intervention (keeping women of IPV at a shelter) would prove effective in reducing the depression of the women as well as have a positive effect in the parenting. Since the present study was done with women of all racial and ethnic background, hence, it can be said that the intervention as provided in the present study would be effective irrespective of the cultural backgrounds. Ethical Considerations The major issue in researching about IPV is related to minimize the harm to the women or non-malfeasance (Kalmendi, 2013). The ethical issue also involves the principle of beneficence. The study was done after taking consent from the women of IPV. The women were counselled with the help of trained therapists. The therapists were provided with adequate training and educational materials (world health organization, 2013). The interviewers were not provided with the information regarding the group to which the women belonged. Thus they were blind to the group assignments. In addition during the period after selection and till the first follow up the mother and child group were kept in shelters provided by MEP. The women of CO and CG group were provided the shelters after 10 weeks. In addition the mothers of CG groups were offered the opportunity of intervention at the end of 10 weeks. Thus, they were not interviewed a third time. Results and Implications The study found that though the frequency of physical violence on the women who were selected for the study varied considerably, they were subjected to emotional harm almost regularly. Also sexual violence with the women had a frequency of approximately 35 per year. Since the women were divided into three groups the IPV factors amongst the three groups of women did not vary much. The study found that the process of positive parenting had a great effect on both the groups of women (M+C and CO). The study that the positive parenting attitude for the two groups varied significantly with the control group (CG). In addition the study also found that there was not much significant differences between the positive parenting scores of M+C and CO. In addition there was significant reduction in positive parenting from Time 1 to Time 2. In the depression index also there was significant reduction in the BDI index from baseline to time 1 for both M+C and CO groups. The BDI scores for CO group showed a rise in the BDI score from time 1 to follow up. The BDI scores for M+C group showed a fall in the BDI score from time 1 to follow up. The study showed that the results of positive parenting were similar to previous literature reports. The study found that positive parenting should take into account both mother and child. This is because positive parenting has a positive effect on both Mother and Child and thus allays a host of negative features of IPV. In addition the study found that there was an improvement in the level of depression of both the groups (M+C and CO) from the intervention to Time 1. This can be attributed to the fact that the women were not allowed to leave the MEP center. References Graham-Bermann, S. A., Miller-Graff, L. (2015). Community-based intervention for women exposed to intimate partner violence: A randomized control trial. Journal of family psychology, 29(4), 537. Shaughnessy, J., Zechmeister, E., Zechmeister, J. (2012). Research methods in psychology (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Definitions|Intimate Partner Violence|Violence Prevention|Injury Center|CDC. (2016). Cdc.gov. Retrieved 28 November 2016, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/definitions.html World Health Organization. (2013). Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women: WHO clinical and policy guidelines. World Health Organization. Kelmendi, K. (2013). Violence against Women: Methodological and ethical issues. Psychology, 4(7), 559.