Methods and tools to screen and assess risks for intimate partner violence among women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in six high-income countries: A scoping review

Purpose

The purpose of this review is to collate literature on approaches to screening women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds for experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and assessing risks, with a view to identifying examples of best practice and research gaps.

Methods

A scoping review methodology was adopted. Medline (Ovid), Embase, CINALH and CENTRAL databases were searched, with supplementary searches for grey literature. Results were independently screened by two reviewers. Studies were included if they focused on women from CaLD backgrounds living in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom or United States of America being screened/assessed in a health setting in relation to IPV. Data on study characteristics and key findings were extracted and critical appraisal of study quality was performed.

Results

A total of n = 1,320 results were yielded. After deduplication, the titles and abstracts of n = 846 studies were screened. A total of n = 5 studies were included in the final analysis, and four screening or risk assessment tools/methods were assessed (Danger Assessment for Immigrant Women, Safe Start, Index of Spouse Abuse and Southern Asian Violence Screen).

Conclusions

Given the documented barriers to migrant help-seeking, screening and risk assessment has an important role to play in ensuring that women from CaLD backgrounds are linked into appropriate IPV support services in a timely manner. However, there is very limited evidence to demonstrate that existing screening/risk assessment tools and strategies meet the specific needs of CaLD populations, and more attention needs to be given to intersectional experiences of violence.