"If I'd Had Something Like SAFE at the Time, Maybe I Would've Left Him Sooner."-Essential Features of eHealth Interventions for Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Study.

Nicole Van Gelder,Suzanne Ligthart,Judith Prins,Karin Van Rosmalen-Nooijens,Julia Ten Elzen,Sabine Oertelt-Prigione

doi:10.1177/08862605211036108

Abstract

Approximately one in three women worldwide experiences intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) in her lifetime. Despite its frequent occurrence and severe consequences, women often refrain from seeking help. eHealth has the potential to remove some of the barriers women face in help seeking and disclosing. To guarantee the client-centeredness of an (online) intervention it is important to involve the target group and people with expertise in the development process. Therefore, we conducted an interview study with survivors and professionals, in order to assess needs, obstacles, and wishes with regard to an eHealth intervention for women experiencing IPVA. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 women (8 survivors and 8 professionals) between 22 and 52 years old, with varied experiences of IPVA and help. Qualitative data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach and open thematic coding. During analysis we identified a third stakeholder group within the study population: survivor-professionals, with both personal experiences of and professional knowledge on IPVA. All stakeholder groups largely agree on the priorities for an eHealth intervention: safety, acknowledgment, contact with fellow survivors, and help. Nevertheless, the groups offer different perspectives, with the survivor-professionals functioning as a bridge group between the survivors and professionals. The groups prioritize different topics. For example, survivors and survivor-professionals highlighted the essential need for safety, while professionals underlined the importance of acknowledgment. Survivor-professionals were the only ones to emphasize the importance of addressing various life domains. The experiences of professionals and survivors highlight a broad range of needs and potential obstacles for eHealth interventions. Consideration of these findings could improve the client-centeredness of existing and future (online) interventions for women experiencing IPVA.

Highlights

The World Health Organization defines intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) as any physical, sexual, psychological, or economic violence that occurs between former or current partners (WHO, 2013)
During the analysis of the interview data, we identified three groups based on the unique input they offered: survivors, professionals, and survivor-professionals
Our results show that these three groups are largely congruent in their feedback on what women in IPVA situations need and what obstacles they face

Summary

Introduction

The World Health Organization defines intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) as any physical, sexual, psychological, or economic violence that occurs between former or current partners (WHO, 2013). While various terminology is used in research to describe IPVA, such as domestic violence (DV), partner abuse, abused women, and abusive relationships, we choose to consistently use the term IPVA. Both men and women can experience IPVA; women are more frequently affected by it (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). In a survey conducted in the Netherlands in 2019 6.2% of Dutch adult women reported physical and/or sexual IPVA in the last five years (Ten Boom & Wittebrood, 2019). Almost 60% of all femicides in the Netherlands between 2015 and 2019 were committed by an (ex-)partner (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2020a)

Methods

Results

Conclusion