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Review
. 2022 Nov:53:101634.
doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101634. Epub 2022 Sep 14.

COVID-19 and family violence: A rapid review of literature published up to 1 year after the pandemic declaration

Nicole Letourneau  1   2   3 , Mayara Alves Luis  4   1 , Stefan Kurbatfinski  2   3 , Hannah J Ferrara  1   3   5 , Carrie Pohl  1   3   5 , Franciele Marabotti  4   6 , K Alix Hayden  7
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 and family violence: A rapid review of literature published up to 1 year after the pandemic declaration

Nicole Letourneau et al. EClinicalMedicine. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Background: After the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, public health restrictions were introduced to slow COVID-19 transmission and prevent health systems overload globally. Work-from-home requirements, online schooling, and social isolation measures required adaptations that may have exposed parents and children to family violence, including intimate partner violence and child abuse and neglect, especially in the early days of the pandemic. Thus, we sought to: (1) examine the occurrence of family violence; (2) identify factors associated with family violence; and (3) identify relevant recommendations, from COVID-19 literature published up to 1 year after the pandemic declaration.

Methods: This review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021241622), employed rapid review methods, and extracted data from eligible papers in medical and health databases published between December 1, 2019 and March 11, 2021 in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Embase.

Findings: 28 articles including 29 studies were included in the rapid review. While many studies of families/households revealed rises in family violence incidence, official justice, police, and emergency department records noted declines during the pandemic. Parental stress, burnout, mental distress (i.e. depression), difficulty managing COVID-19 measures, social isolation, and financial and occupational losses were related to increases in family violence. Health services should adopt approaches to prevent family violence, treat victims in the context of public health restrictions, and increase training for digital service usage by health and educational professionals.

Interpretation: Globally, restrictions aimed to limit the spread of COVID-19 may have increased the risk factors and incidence of family violence in communities. Official records of family violence may be biased toward under-reporting in the context of pandemics and should be interpreted with caution.

Funding: RESOLVE Alberta, Canada and the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP), Global Affairs Canada.

Keywords: COVID-19; Child abuse and neglect; Family violence; Global; Rapid review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Categorisation of eligible studies and their data sources.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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