An exploration of health providers' responses to intimatepartner violence (IPV) in Malaysia

Abstract

This grounded theory study aimed to examine factors that influence Malaysian health providers' attitudes, knowledge, and responses to IPV survivors, including health providers' perceptions of IPV, factors that influenced the ways they work with IPV survivors, factors they perceived toward influencing IPV survivors' help-seeking behaviors, and their recommendations for improving IPV training. Seventeen (N = 17) participants were recruited using snowball sampling and theoretical sampling was utilized to ensure the data was saturated. The results found nine superordinate themes that highlights health providers' perceptions of IPV in general, conceptualization of IPV, institutional factors, health providers' personal factors, sociocultural factors, IPV survivors' resistance, and professional responsibilities, as well as recommendations for improving IPV training and services. Twenty-three themes and 71 subthemes were identified to further describe the superordinate themes. Implications of the findings for health providers and counselor training were presented. This study concluded with recommendations for further research directions. Keywords: intimate partner violence, health provider, grounded theory, Malaysia