Authors :
Vincent Sezibera (PhD) & Claire Bahati (MSc)
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Rwanda, Rwanda
E-mail: V.SEZIBERA@ur.ac.rw
Background and Purpose of the study
The concept of violence against women has been used
to describe a wide range of acts, including murder, rape and sexual assault,
physical assault, emotional abuse, battering, stalking, prostitution, genital
mutilation, sexual harassment, and pornography.
Such concepts could not
distinguish violence between two persons engaged in romantic relationship from
violence between intimate partners. Therefore, particular attention should be
made to intimate partner violence (IPV) to better understand factors predicting
violence in couples and drawn healing strategies.
The IPV is no longer considered as a situation where
female is victims and male to be perpetrators. Hence, the IPV is estimated to
be a “bidirectional situation” where each partner is both an aggressor and a
victim (Friend et al., 2011). Moreover, IPV is a serious forensic and clinical
problem that deserves particular attention and systematic intervention
strategies.
Objectives
This
study aimed at assessing the predicting and mental health burden from the
intimate partner violence (IPV).
Methods
Aged
between 24 and 77 years (M= 39; SD=11), and slightly males (54.7%),
participants (N=76) were recruited from the association of IPV in the
Mageragere Sector, Nyarugenge District, Kigali. It was assumed that IPV is
caused by a number of factors including psycho-socio-economic factors and which
affect in turn mental health. A mixed methods approach was used to serve the
purpose of the study. Standardized questionnaires were used to assess the level
of victimization and perpetration of the IPV and mental health poor outcomes.
The quantitative data were supplemented by the qualitative data collected from
interview.
Results
The
major findings from this study indicate significant correlation between IPV
severity, medical conditions, beliefs, past traumas/neglect and the mental
health burden. The data analysis yielded that a significant number of the
participants are likely to develop PTSD (36.8%), severe (28.9%) and extreme
depression (27.6%) leading to suicide risk and risk behaviors (25%) as a result
of being exposed to IPV. Although participants are assisted by a local
association to handle the IPV issues, the Life Wounds Healing Association
(LIWOHA), 25.8% reported on-going conflicts and abusive relationship at the
time of the screening.
Conclusion
Results
from this study are expected to raise awareness on the IPV prevalence and its
detrimental effect to mental health.
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This abstract was accepted for an oral presentation at the "International German and Rwandan Medical Congress and Forensic Summer School 2014". Theme ; "The Developments of Medico-Legal Services under the perspective of Rwanda and Germany", 18th-23rd Augst 2014. Kigali/Rwanda.
