The transgenerational consequences of paternal social isolation and predation exposure in threespined sticklebacks.

Parents routinely encounter stress in the ecological environment that can affect offspring development (transgenerational plasticity: TGP); however, parents' interactions with conspecifics may alter how parents respond to ecological stressors. During social buffering, the presence of conspecifics can reduce the response to or increase the speed of recovery from a stressor. This may have cascading effects on offspring if conspecifics can mitigate parental responses to ecological stress in ways that blunt the transmission of stress-induced transgenerational effects. Here, we simultaneously manipulated both paternal social isolation and experience with predation risk prior to fertilisation in threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We generated offspring via in-vitro fertilisation to allow us to isolate paternal effects mediated via sperm alone (i.e. in the absence of paternal care). If social buffering mitigates TGP induced by paternal exposure to predation risk, then we expect the transgenerational effects of predation exposure to be weaker when a conspecific is present compared to when the father is isolated. Offspring of predator-exposed fathers showed reduced anxiety-like behaviour and tended to be captured faster by the predator. Fathers who were socially isolated also had offspring that were captured faster by a live predator, suggesting that paternal social isolation may have maladaptive effects on how offspring respond to ecological stressors. Despite additive effects of paternal social isolation and paternal predation risk, we found no evidence of an interaction between these paternal treatments, suggesting that the presence of a conspecific did not buffer fathers and/or offspring from the effects of predation risk. Our results suggest that socially induced stress is an important, yet underappreciated, mediator of TGP and can elicit transgenerational effects even in species that do not form permanent social groups. Future studies should therefore consider how the parental social environment can affect both within and trans-generational responses to ecological stressors.

Child-to-Parent Violence and Abuse: A Scoping Review.

Child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA) is a pattern of behavior where a parent or carer is abused by a child they are caring for. The main body of work on CPVA is relatively recent and evolving at pace. This scoping review explores the characteristics of parents, carers, children, and young people in cases of CPVA, the characteristics of CPVA, and barriers to and facilitators of help-seeking in cases of CPVA. The scoping review did not exclude any studies on the basis of geographical location or date of the study. The databases Scopus, CINAHL, Web of Science, Medline, and PubMed were searched in August 2023, along with hand searches of key journals. A total of 145 reports were included in the review, selected for their relevance to the scoping review questions. The main findings were: (a) the field of CPVA is rapidly growing, doubling in the last decade but with a predominance of quantitative studies; (b) there is no agreed universal definition; (c) children and young people with disabilities; who identify as trans or nonbinary gender, or who are adopted or fostered, are almost completely absent from the existing research; (d) there is very limited research focusing on protective factors or on help-seeking.

Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence and Abuse in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review.

Technology-facilitated sexual violence and abuse (TFSVA) is a pervasive phenomenon and a global problem. TFSVA refers to any form of sexual violence, exploitation, or harassment enacted through the misuse of digital technologies. This includes, but is not limited to, image-based sexual abuse, online sexual exploitation and harassment, sextortion, and the non-consensual sharing of sexual images. It has significant and long-lasting psychological, social, financial, and health impacts. TFSVA is on the rise, particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), where there has been an explosion in digital technology overall. This scoping review aimed to identify studies on TFSVA in LMICs to examine its types, impacts, victim-survivor coping strategies, and help-seeking. To identify peer-reviewed literature, six databases were searched: Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, Star Plus-University of Sheffield library search, and Web of Science. The review included empirical studies published in English between 1996 and 2022, focusing on TFSVA among adults (aged 18+) in LMICs. A total of 14 peer-reviewed studies were included, highlighting that scant empirical research is available on TFSVA in LMICs. This review found several types of TFSVA and their wide-ranging impacts; traditional patriarchal societal norms and values largely shape TFSVA for women in LMICs. It also found more social impacts linked to sociocultural factors. Survivors adopted various coping mechanisms and help-seeking behaviors primarily through informal family support. Studies highlighted the need for effective legislation; pro-victim-survivor policing; strong family support; increasing victim-survivors' knowledge about reporting; and more research.

"Survive, learn to live with it or not": A narrative analysis of women's repeat victimization using a lifecourse perspective.

Violence against women is a global public health concern, with high levels of prevalence and debilitating consequences for victims, including a higher risk of revictimization. Quantitative evidence shows a strong association between previous experiences of sexual victimization, particularly in childhood, and future victimization. However, there is limited rigorous qualitative scholarship that advances understanding about revictimization experienced from childhood into adulthood. In this study, we address this gap offering a novel contribution to qualitative insights on revictimization using a life-course perspective. We conducted a rigorous qualitative secondary analysis, adopting a feminist narrative approach, to explore how individuals make sense of their experiences of abuse. Findings showed five main themes about survivors' experiences of repeat victimization across the life-course including: abuse experiences in childhood and adolescence; mental health and 'risky' coping mechanisms; naming abuse in early adulthood; seeking support in adulthood; surviving and a life beyond abuse. Most participants experienced multiple incidents of sexual abuse in childhood, which led to helplessness, shame, blame, and normalization of their experiences, creating a vulnerability to repeat victimization. Childhood abuse had later mental health impacts. Many participants used risky coping mechanisms, such as substance use. Survivors tended to be seen through the lens of their mental health diagnosis and addiction rather than through the lens of how abuse caused complex trauma. To address the impacts of revictimization and complex trauma affecting women across the globe, healthcare policy and services need a narrative and trauma-informed approach, over the short-, medium- or longer-term, enabling survivors to make sense of the connected nature of their experiences and accumulated vulnerability resulting from the abuse by others, rather than factors associated with the individual (their mental ill health, for example, or substance use). This is important as women's individual understanding is critical to processing trauma and abuse, and to longer-term recovery.

Elder Mistreatment and Dementia: A Comparison of People with and without Dementia across the Prevalence of Abuse.

This paper examines the prevalence of different types of elder mistreatment, care needs, and risk factors amongst older adults living with and without dementia in any setting (community or institution). Three years (2014-2017) of anonymized reported incidents of elder mistreatment to a national UK helpline were examined in an exploratory study, using a matched sample design (N = 598) comparing adults with dementia (n = 299) to those without (n = 299) on mistreatment type, care needs, and risk factors for abuse. Financial exploitation was more common among older adults with dementia who required more daily care than those without. Risk factors for elder mistreatment among older adults without dementia were often chronic in nature (such as poor physical health) whereas risk factors for people with dementia were associated with a dementia diagnosis. Raising implications for health and social care, results show that older adults diagnosed with dementia had increased care needs and vulnerability to abuse.

Technology-Facilitated Abuse in Intimate Relationships: A Scoping Review.

Technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) is a significant, harmful phenomenon and emerging trend in intimate partner violence. TFA encompasses a range of behaviours and is facilitated in online spaces (on social media and networking platforms) and through the misuse of everyday technology (e.g. mobile phone misuse, surveillance apps, spyware, surveillance via video cameras and so on). The body of work on TFA in intimate relationships is emerging, and so this scoping review set out to establish what types of abuse, impacts and forms of resistance are reported in current studies. The scoping review examined studies between 2000 and 2020 that focused on TFA within intimate partnerships (adults aged 18+) within the setting of any of these countries: the UK and Ireland, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The databases MEDLINE, CINAHL and Scopus were searched in December 2020. A total of 22 studies were included in the review. The main findings were that TFA is diverse in its presentation and tactics, but can be typed according to the eight domains of the Duluth Power & Control Wheel. Impacts are not routinely reported across studies but broadly fall into the categories of social, mental health and financial impacts and omnipresence. Similarly, modes of resistance are infrequently reported in studies. In the few studies that described victim/survivor resistance, this was in the context of direct action, access to legal or professional support or in the identification of barriers to resistance.

Exploring the Domestic Abuse Narratives of Trans and Nonbinary People and the Role of Cisgenderism in Identity Abuse, Misgendering, and Pathologizing.

Drawing on data from two empirical studies, this article employs cisgenderism as a conceptual tool to explore trans people's experiences of domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Distinct modes of cisgenderism are analyzed. These are identity abuse, microaggressions, misgendering, and pathologizing practices. Qualitative data were collected via semistructured interviews (n = 24). Two inclusion criteria were used for this secondary analysis requiring participants to self-identify as trans or nonbinary and have experience of DVA. The findings illuminate the extent of cisgenderism as underpinning experiences of DVA. The article ends with a call for further theoretical and empirical research in this regard.