Breaking the Silence: Understanding the Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence on Refugee Men, with Depression as a Key Outcome

Intimate Partner Violence Victimization Among Refugee Men: Prevalence and Correlates With Associated Factors

“…Females engage in acts of aggression towards their partners for varying motivations (e.g., mental health problems, self-defense, emancipatory frustration, and a desire to be free from oppressive patriarchal practices) (Khadhar, 2022). Some demographic variables are considered predisposing factors for male victimization such as maltreatment in childhood (Carmo et al, 2011), alcohol addiction (Thureau et al, 2015), women's jealousy, mental problems (Damra & Akour, 2023), physical impairment (Hines & Douglas, 2009), wife's educational level, and short relationship duration (Gass et al, 2011).…”

“…In general, the perception of IPV as exclusively a women's issue has led to the development of research frameworks, methodologies, measurements, and prevention programs targeting females as the victims (Hines & Douglas, 2009). However, male victimization is rarely described, studied, or documented (Enakele, 2019), and so there is still a lack of methodology, research frameworks, and data to examine the prevalence and context for this population (Damra & Akour, 2023). Men are still perceived as unacceptable victims of IPV (Oyediran et al, 2022), which is often viewed as taboo due to the patriarchal gender paradigm (George, 1994), and people are more likely to judge men's violent behavior as IPV (Worden & Carlson, 2005), and more forbidden than women's violence against men.…”

“…Male victimization has been studied for men in homosexual and heterosexual relationships (Alifanovienė et al, 2013;Guzmán-Pimentel & Rojas-Solís, 2022;Josolyne, 2011;Kumar, 2012;Liu et al, 2021;Nowinski & Bowen, 2012) indigenous men (Rizkalla et al, 2020), men with intellectual and physical disabilities (Li et al, 2022;Mitra et al, 2016), men with a previous history of abuse during childhood (Carmo et al, 2011), and those with addictions (Walters et al, 2021). Although immigrant and refugee men may experience considerable multifaceted and interrelated barriers that place them at a heightened risk for suffering from in-home/out-home violence (Releifweb, 2022), IPV against refugee men remains understudied compared with refugee child/female victimization (Ado et al, 2020;Al-Modallal, 2012;Damra & Akour, 2023;Lee & Hadeed, 2009;Njie-carr et al, 2021;Sudbury & Robinson, 2016;Tsang, 2015). According to ISMV (Winstok, 2007), refugee families face additional challenges that may facilitate the suffering from partner/non-partner violence.…”

“…Various endeavors (Damra & Akour, 2023;Vakili, 2020) have highlighted the scarcity of efforts addressing IPV against men within refugee families. Existing work predominantly revolves around intervention programs aimed at reforming the behavior of abusive men (Daoud, 2021).…”

“…The importance of determining the presence of IPV against refugee men cannot be overstated (Damra & Akour, 2023). Once its existence is confirmed, a critical step is to identify potential interventions and address the unique needs of these families in humanitarian contexts, as highlighted in the works of Alifanovienė et al (2013) and Tsang (2015).…”