Intimate partner violence against women and health: help-seeking behaviour of those affected (HisuV)
Funded as an equal opportunities policy equivalence measure within the framework of the female professors' programme financed by the federal government and the HMWK for the completion of doctoral studies.
Researcher: Dipl.-Soz. Petra Brzank, MPH, Cand. Ph.D.
Reviewers: Prof. Dr. Machewsky-Schneider, TU Berlin (first reviewer), Prof. Dr. Beate Blättner, HS Fulda (second reviewer)
Duration: 3/2009 to 3/2012
Partner violence against women is a serious public health problem because of its scale and impact on the health and well-being of those affected. The socio-economic consequences for individuals as well as for society as a whole are considerable.
A counselling and refuge network has been established in Germany to support women who have suffered partner violence. Empirically evident, psychosocial support contributes to reducing the negative consequences of partner violence on the mental health of victims. Although the support services are known, only a small proportion of those affected seek help in comparison to the extent. International studies have shown the complexity of factors influencing women's help-seeking behaviour. A better understanding of help-seeking and its circumstances can promote the adaptation of existing support services to the needs of women.
In 2004, the representative survey "Living Situation, Safety and Health of Women in Germany" was published by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. More than 10,000 randomly selected women between the ages of 16 and 85 were interviewed anonymously with a detailed questionnaire about their experiences of violence.
The secondary data analysis of these data focuses on the influencing factors that motivate victims of partner violence (n=1,730) to seek help. A complex model was used to examine the potential influencing factors such as socio-demographics, health status, personal and social resources, multiple experiences of violence and partner violence severity, co-victimisation of children, substance use and knowledge of support services. The univariate descriptive analysis describes the study population in comparison to the total population of the primary study (N=10,118), bivariate correlations and multivariate regressions are used for construct analysis. A structural equation model describes the possible causal paths between variables and constructs with regard to the help-seeking behaviour of the women concerned.
The multivariate regression analyses show several factors influencing help-seeking behaviour: The feeling of co-responsibility for the violent acts prevents women from seeking help, while the use of psychotropic drugs and the partner violence scissors, child abuse and a higher number of injuries are more likely to lead to seeking help and support. In the causal path analysis, help-seeking is primarily positively determined by the severity of violence and multiple experiences of violence in childhood and adulthood. Proposals for improvement and approaches for secondary and primary prevention in health care are derived from these results.