Die behoefte aan ondersteuning van vroue in landelike gebiede wat by intiemepaargeweld betrokke is : 'n ekologiese perspektief

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Intimate partner violence is world wide and in South Africa an increasing social problem thatleads to life-threatening history of injuries and psychosocial problems. Intimate partner violenceis a global phenomenon prevalent in all socio-economic, race, religion, cultural and geographicalboundaries. Although women with a lack or low income is more at risk of intimate partnerviolence and this reinforces their dependency of the intimate partner violence relationship. Thelargest percentage of South Africa's poor population lives in rural areas that make them morevulnerable for social problems because of their lack of adequate resources. Women in rural areasinvolved with intimate partner violence are physically isolated from a supportive social networkand must travel far distances to gain access to formal support resources.The goal of the study is to gain an understanding of the support needs of women in rural areasthat are involved in intimate partner violence from an ecological perspective. To achieve thisgoal, the objectives are: to explain the nature, extent and origin of intimate partner violence as asocial problem; to discuss the relevance of the ecological perspective as a theoretical frameworkregarding the analyses of intimate partner violence; to describe the support needs of women inrural areas that is involved in intimate partner violence; to investigate the experience of womenin rural areas that is involved in intimate partner violence regarding the availability of support;and to offer recommendations regarding the promotion of the support needs for women in ruralareas that is expose to intimate partner violence.Combinations of a quantitative and qualitative research approach were used in the study. Thestudy further assumed an exploratory and descriptive research design due to the lack ofinformation on support that is available to women in rural areas that are involved in intimatepartner violence. A purposive sampling method was used to select the participants. Data wasgathered by means of a semi-structured questionnaire, which was administered during 20individual interviews. This allowed for a holistic view of the participants beliefs about, orperceptions of the topic. The design of the questionnaire was based on the information obtainedfrom the literature review.The findings of the empirical investigation mainly confirmed the findings of the literature studythat those women in rural areas that are involved in intimate partner violence support needs, from multiple levels of the ecological perspective. This support entails both informal and formalsupport resources which vary from concrete, informational to emotional support in order to copewith stressful life situations.The most important recommendations resulting from the study indicate that social workers mustuse an ecological approach during service rendered to women in rural areas that are involved inintimate partner violence. This approach can be used to identify and strengthen support resourceson a micro, meso, exo and macro system level.The study further indicate that social workers must collaborate with different government sectorssuch as health care, police and law enforcement in order to create a multi professional team thatfocus on the social functioning of families and the community as a entity. Social workers thatrender intervention services to women in rural areas that are exposed to intimate partner violenceshould focus on all levels of social work intervention. The recommendation emphasises theimportance of women and the communities' awareness regarding intimate partner violence topromote women independency and to promote and facilitate support groups.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University