Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Strengthen Social Support Network Mechanism as a Mitigation Approach

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is any behaviour that causes physical, psychological, or sexual harm to intimate partners. It is one of the worldwide social dilemmas that negatively affects individuals, families, and the community. Sri Lankan experiences with IPV are more or less the same as those in other countries. This paper focused on the features, reasons and mitigation approaches of IPV. The Research Objective was to identify the factors behind mitigating IPV. The tested research problem was 'how does apply IPV mitigation strategies to the Sri Lankan context'. Four scholarly articles written by Iverson, K.M., Bogat, G.A., Garcia, A. M. & Levendosky, A.A., Miller, E. and McCaw, B and Maguele, M.S.B., Taylor, M., and Khuzwayo, N. for this systematic desk review. The social network support mechanism was developed through a thematic analytical approach. Findings show that plenty of biopsychosocial effects happen with IPV against women. It can happen from scratching to death, including fractures, frequent headaches, neck and facial injuries, brain damage, abdominal injuries, sexual assault, and homicide. Psychological abuse is caused by frequent verbal aggressions, including scoldings, blaming, insulting, threatening, intimidation and various forms of control. Its final results are associated with emotional damages such as low self-esteem, hopeless life, moody situations, less eating, less sleep, more thinking, depression, anxiety, substance misuse and PTSD. Background factors to IPV are cultural customs and religious beliefs, illicit drug use, less economic opportunities, lack of economic independence and lack of awareness of human rights. Suitable implications include strengthening the social support networks with awareness programs on IPV to young women, increasing available hotline services, forcing the implementation of laws and regulations that protect women's and girls' rights, making dialogues on IPV, its impact on family and women, improve economic opportunities, introduce primary care practices programs and introduce tailor programs for different special in Sri Lanka.