Open Collections

The social support needs of female survivors of intimate partner violence

University of British Columbia

The effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization on mental health are lasting and difficult to mitigate. In cases of IPV, there are short- and long-term stress effects, necessitating ongoing coping and adaptation. Social support has been shown to facilitate coping and it may promote resiliency in the face of hardship or trauma. There is evidence that social support has main, mediating, and moderating effects on psychological wellbeing in cases of IPV. Social support appears to boost overall wellbeing in individuals who have experienced IPV, and it also seems to buffer against negative effects on wellbeing in cases of low-level IPV. Previous studies of social support in survivors of IPV have typically used unidimensional and/or general measures of perceived social support, which may have obscured the types of social support that are the most helpful for the population of interest. This dissertation investigated the support needs of female survivors of IPV victimization. Two novel approaches of measuring social support in the population of interest were investigated, culminating in some specific suggestions for measurement of perceived social support based on the unique needs of IPV survivors. Participants for this research were female undergraduate university students recruited via the University of British Columbia – Okanagan Psychology Department SONA Research Participant Pool. Measures were administered via online surveys or during in-person interviews. Overall, it was found that there may be some benefit to measuring social support from an intimate partner separately from support from other members of the social network. Additionally, there are unique needs among IPV survivors, and some of these were observed in the current study. It is hoped that this dissertation project may inform future research and interventions involving social support for women who have experienced IPV victimization.

Text

2020-07-02

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/74831

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/