Predictive Factors of Infant Gender-Based Violence against Women During Pregnancy: A Systematic Review Study

Authors
Aynaz Bagherzadi
Reza Abdollahi
Maryam Dadashi Gogje Yaran
Saeed Yavari
Ziba Dadras
Iran Khalili
10.61186/ibj.25th-11th-IACRTIMSS
Abstract
Introduction: Domestic violence against pregnant women committed by intimate partners is a worldwide concern, especially in developing countries, which constitutes a violation of human rights. Violence is defined as frightening, threatening, or annoying behaviors that are used to impose one’s power on someone else and include physical, sexual, economic, and verbal abuse and divorce. The World Health Organization has reported that more than 90% of the abused pregnant women are abused by the biological father of the child the woman is carrying. Globally, 26% of ever-married/partnered women aged 15 years and older have been subjected to physical and sexual intimate partner violence at least once in their lifetime. Gender discrimination in societies with low socioeconomic and cultural status leads to violence against pregnant mothers who are expecting a girl child. The study aimed to define the predictive factors of infant gender-based violence against women during pregnancy.

Methods and Materials: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Guidelines were followed. Ovid Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PubMed were used for records from 2013 to 2023. Finally, 3687 studies were found, and 39 met the inclusion criteria.

Results: Analysis of the articles revealed that low educational attainment of violent men, higher alcohol consumption, substance use, history of child and family abuse, limited decision-making skills, experiencing depression, males having multiple sexual partners, and younger age were found to be individual- and family-associated factors that increase the experiences of gender-based violence. Community tolerant attitudes to violence and girl children and discriminative and patriarchal attitudes, women’s unemployment, being Muslim, lower socioeconomic class, food, and social insecurity were found to be community- and societal-associated factors of gender-based violence against pregnant women. Alcohol consumption, low educational attainment, experiencing depression, being younger, having a history of child and family abuse, tolerant attitudes to violence, and low socioeconomic status were poignant factors associated with gender-based violence amongst women.

Conclusion and Discussion: Due to individual, family, community- and societal-associated factors that cause psychological defects in women and children, it is recommended to adjust the discriminative and patriarchal attitudes with action research studies and also adjust these factors by psychological consultations before and after childbirth with the family.



Keywords
Infant
Pregnancy
Violence
Women