A therapeutic approach for victims of non-battering marital rape

[摘要] English: In general there exists a misconception that marital rape is always associated withbattering. The importance of non-battering marital rape involving minimal physical force, and usually initiated by sexual conflict, can be overlooked, as most information (In marital rape stems from studies on wife battering. Non-battering marital rape is often regarded as a less damaging type of marital rape and fewer victims are likely to be identified. These women may be trapped in damaging relationships for years and their mental health may suffer as a result.The objective of the study was to explore and describe the life world of victims of non-battering marital rape. The data was used to generate a therapeutic approach for victims of non-battering marital rape in order to improve their mental health.This qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research was conducted in two phases. During phase one the life world of 17 victims of non-battering marital rape was explored and described within multiple case studies. The data was analysed accordinq to the methods of Tesch and Giorgi. A cross validation report indicating categories, subcategories and related themes, reflected the life world of non-battering rnarital rape victims, and indicated how the bio-psychosocial functioning of the victims was affected by non-battering marital rape. A literature control enhanced the trustworthiness of the results by a comparison of the results of the study with the theory in literature. Phase two of the research constituted the generation of a therapeutic approach for victims of non-battering marital rape within a multimodalperspective. The approach generated during the second phase focussed on improving the biopsychosocial functioning of the victim of non-battering marital rape by describing different therapeutic intervensions. If the bio-psychosocial functioning of the victim can be improved, her quality of life should improve and she should be able to function more effectively in the community.This research contributed to a better understanding of the life world of victims of non-battering marital and the therapeutic approach from which they could benefit. It was recommended that non-battering marital rape should form part of the frame of reference of health care workers by means of education. This would result in more victims of non-battering marital rape being identified and thus involved in therapeuticintervention.

[发布机构] University of the Free State