Half of all surveyed women Of the multiple types of violence, emotional IPV was most common Focus group participants identified additional forms of violence including economic IPV and community discrimination. Lack of financial resources and unemployment were common problems among crisis-affected women and were described as an underlying source of IPV.
Both women and men reported that shame and stigma play a large role in how women experience the repercussions of IPV, regardless of the form of violence, with public episodes of IPV almost always seen as more detrimental than private episodes of IPV.
These results underscore the need for increased social support mechanisms for women to reduce the shame, stigma, and isolation associated with their experiences. The creation of safe and supportive spaces for women to talk about and challenge social norms may be an important first step in reducing community shaming and the secrecy that often surrounds IPV.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: Data from the paper will be made available to all interested researchers on request. All requests should be directed to George Mason University email: irb gmu. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
