Table 1 Summary of empirical research on DV against women during and after COVID-19 pandemic curfew in Jordan (N = 8).
From: Domestic violence against women during the COVID19 pandemic in Jordan: a systematic review
Author, year | Language | Aim Study (objectives) | Study design (Method) | Sample details | Sample location | Findings | Study limitations | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Definition of DV | Forms of DV | Causes of DV | Abuser | |||||||
Abujilban et al. (2022) | English | To find out whether there is any difference in the incidence of IPV during and before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and whether any socio-demographical factors are related to the incidence of IPV against pregnant women during lockdown in Jordan. | Cross-sectional online survey (via social media) | • 215 pregnant women. Mean age = 28.6 years. • Most of them were educated, and in households with a good level of monthly income. | Jordan (rural, urban). | IPV includes physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse, and controlling behaviors. It causes physical, sexual, and/or psychological harm | • Psychological • Physical • Sexual • Control and humiliation. | — | Husband | • No representative sample which consequently affected external validity. • Sample included only women of high socio-economic status. • Data collection method based on self-reporting, which can suffer from social desirability bias. |
Abuhammad (2021) | English | To determine the prevalence rate of violence amongst women in Jordan and identify possible correlates of violence against women during the COVID-19 outbreak | Cross-sectional (online survey) | 687 women. Age range = 18–55 years; sixth grade level of the Arabic language. | Jordan (rural, urban) | — | • Physical • Psychological | • Job loss • Increased duration of direct contact with partner and family member causing tension and problems • Normalization of violence as a way of discipline and enforcement of gender norms. • Men using violence as an expression of anger or shame when they fall short of achieving the hegemonic masculine ideals. • Violence often perceived by a patriarchal family as normal and celebrated as hegemonic masculinity. | • Mother • Father • Brother • Husband | • Relied on measuring violence using an online self-administered survey. • The descriptive nature of the study, which limits having detailed and rich understanding of violence during the COVID-19 outbreak. |
Alsawalqa et al. (2021) | English | • To build a comprehensive framework for the Man Box by determining the state of manhood in the Arabian context and explore the sources of social pressures dictated by the Man Box rules in Jordan. • To examine how Jordanian men internalize and agree with rigid Man Box ideas and norms about what “real men” should believe in and how they should behave in contrast to how the Man Box rules affect how men live and behave. • To assess Jordanian women’s perceptions of the Man Box. • To examine the link between Man Box beliefs and DV. | Quantitative descriptive analysand (online survey) | 1029 participants (525 men; 504 women) | Amman, the capital of Jordan | DV toward women is an extension of patriarchal dominance | Bullying & violence: • Verbal • Physical • Online | • Patriarchy and cultural ideals of masculinity. • Adherence to the Man Box beliefs. • Personal agreement with Man Box beliefs, which can prevent men from breaking out of the Man Box, and reinforce and tolerate violence against women. | • Men • Women • Others | • Using a broader study sample comprising people from all regions of Jordan could have enhanced the results. • Cultural barriers in the Arab, Islamic, and Bedouin contexts likely led to self-reporting bias which may have skewed the results. |
Alsawalqa, (2021a) | English | • To explore the causes and forms of DV against husbands by their wives. • To explore the causes of violence against wives by husbands. | Qualitative exploratory descriptive (semi-structured interview guide) | 33 married men; age range = 29–60 years. | Amman, the capital of Jordan | Spouses (husband, wife) engaging in any abusive and violent behaviors against each other, including physical, psychological, and emotional abuse; and neglect. | • Physical • Emotional • Psychological • Economic • Neglect | • Economic problems (poverty, insufficient salary, wives spending money, and not considering the negative economic effects of COVID-19 on their husbands’ work) • Wives neglecting the house, children, and their personal hygiene. Additionally, wives’ long preoccupation with social media. • Unfulfilled sexual needs. • ’Wives’ family interfering in their marital life. | Husband | – |
Alsawalqa, (2021b) | English | • To explore the patterns of economic abuse among working married women in Jordan. • To identify women’s experiences with other abuses interconnected with economic abuse, including psychological, emotional, and physical abuse; and harassment. | Descriptive comparative | 500 working married women; age range = 20–54 years. | Amman, the capital of Jordan (urban and rural) | — | • Economic • Psychological • Emotional • Physical • Harassment | • Cultural and patriarchal social belief systems and violence. • Women’s financial dependency on their husbands and requirements of certain socio-cultural structures. | Husband | • Excluding additional variables (e.g., kinship between spouses, religion, and women’s employment status, could be valuable in terms of a more granular understanding of women’s abuse. • Excluding women from the northern and southern regions of Jordan. |
Aolymat (2020) | English | To examine the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on DV, menstruation and genital tract health, and contraception use among women in Jordan | Cross-sectional (online survey) | 200 married women; age range = 18– ≥45 years (70%) were within the ages of 25–34 years. | Urban & rural areas in Jordan | — | — | • Reduced income/ loss of work. • Social isolation. • Quarantine. • Exploitative relationship • Disruption of healthcare services. | — | — |
Qudsieh et al (2022) | English | To report the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic curfew on the psychosocial lives of pregnant women in Jordan. | Cross sectional (online survey) | 877 pregnant women during the lockdown; age range = 18–45 years. | Central, northern, and southern Jordan. | — | • Verbal • Physical • Financial | • The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic curfew on the psychosocial lives, financial difficulties, and lack of healthcare. | Husband or family | • The sample size was small. • Psychological stress was not measured by a validated instrument, administrated face to face by a trained specialist. • The survey was available only to women who had access to social media platforms; therefore, women with limited resources and women who did not have access to the Internet could not participate. |
Kataybeh (2021) | English | To detect the causes and forms of violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan. | Descriptive statistical (online survey conducted via social media). | 1308 women; ages range = 18– ≥ 45 years (including daughters, wives, widows, and divorced women) | Governorates of Jordan [North (41%), Central (51.9%), and South (7.1%)] | — | • Verbal • Physical • Psychological • Sexual | • Male dominated culture, • Interference by family and relatives • High cost of living • Low household income • Poverty | • Husband • Father • Brother • Work Colleagues | — |
