A Scoping Review on the Coping Strategies Used by Intimate Partner Violence Survivors

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Public Health

Background:

• Intimate partner violence (IPV) significantly impacts women's health and well-being.
• Understanding coping strategies is crucial for developing effective support interventions.
• Existing research on coping among female IPV survivors lacks a standardized framework for analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of coping strategies used by female IPV survivors.
• To evaluate measurement approaches for assessing these coping strategies.
• To assess the applicability of Skinner's 11 families of coping framework to IPV research.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review of 27 studies published between 2017 and 2022, sourced from the Scopus database.
• Analysis of qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (Brief-COPE, IPV Strategies Index) data.
• Categorization of identified coping strategies using Skinner's 11 families of coping framework.

Main Results:

• Methodological diversity was observed, with qualitative interviews being the predominant method.
• Skinner's framework successfully categorized all identified coping strategies, confirming its utility.
• Seeking social support (88.89%) was the most common strategy, followed by escape-avoidance (55.56%) and problem-solving (44.44%).

Conclusions:

• Skinner's 11 families of coping framework provides a comprehensive and effective tool for classifying coping strategies in IPV research.
• Standardized classification enhances consistency and comparability across studies on female IPV survivors.
• The findings support the framework's universal applicability and inform the development of targeted interventions for survivors.