Post-Resettlement Intimate Partner Domestic Violence in Afghan and Arab Refugees: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Intimate Partner Domestic Violence (IPDV) has been reported to be high in minorities across the US. Among minorities, refugees and immigrants encounter particular barriers that may influence their responses to IPDV. This scoping review examined three decades of literature (1980–2022) on resettled married Afghan and Arab refugee women’s attitudes and behaviors toward IPDV in their host countries, aiming to explore gaps in the research, practice, and policy recommendations. Based on the Arksey and O’Malley model, our scoping review conducted extensive searches in SCOPUS, PubMed, PsychInfo, CINAHL, the Web of Science, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and the Embase databases. Searches identified articles that examined resettled Afghan and/or Arab refugees’ responses to IPDV in Western countries. The search identified 439 unique citations; 17 met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. The major findings included acculturative changes in refugee attitudes and behaviors and in stakeholders’ perspectives. Significant attitudinal changes (acknowledgment, silence, justification, or IPDV disapproval) contrasted with less behavioral changes (help-seeking behaviors, or action plans), or changes in barriers to actions, and with a resistance to change in stakeholders (cultural norms and beliefs, the community patriarchal normalization of violence, service providers’ unfamiliarity with client diversity and refugee cultures) in supporting women’s decision-making regarding IPDV. Not a single article made explicit policy recommendations.

Keywords

• intimate partner domestic violence
• Afghan and Arab refugees
• acculturation
• women’s decision-making