Help-seeking and needs of male victims of intimate partner violence in Portugal.
Open accessAbstract
A large body of research clearly indicates that men are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, in Portugal, the phenomenon of male victims of IPV remains hidden and is not a target of research, public policy, or social attention. This exploratory study analyzed the prevalence of victimization, help-seeking behaviors, and needs of 89 men who defined themselves as victims of IPV. Men reported that they had been the victims of at least 1 abusive behavior by their current or former female partner. Psychological violence, followed by physical and sexual violence, was the most frequently reported experience. The majority of the men did not seek help because of difficulty in self-identifying as victims, shame, and distrust of the support system. When they did seek help, informal sources, such as friends and family, were used more often than formal sources. In terms of formal support, victims used health professionals and social/victim support services more than any other type. The male victims evaluated the formal resources (e.g., social/victim support services, police, justice system) as unhelpful. A mediation model showed that both frequency of physical violence and self-reported impact of IPV predicted help-seeking, with impact of IPV partially mediating the association between physical IPV and help-seeking. The results indicate the difficulties that men have in recognizing themselves as victims of abuse, their reluctance to seek help, the barriers they face, and their heterogeneous and idiosyncratic needs. The implications regarding masculinity, the help-seeking system, and public policy are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The previous systematic review identified twelve relevant primary-level qualitative interview and survey studies of the experiences of male victims of domestic violence and abuse.
“The systematic review also identified twelve relevant primary-level qualitative interview and survey studies of the experiences of male victims of DVA [16–27] (Table 4).”
Three studies recruited MSM (gay, bisexual and transgender men), five recruited heterosexual men, and four recruited men of diverse sexuality or did not specify sexuality.
“Three studies recruited MSM (gay, bisexual and transgender men),11 13 22 five studies recruited heterosexual men,14–18 and four studies recruited men of diverse sexuality or did not specify sexuality.12 18 20 21”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
The searches identified 12 relevant qualitative studies.
“The searches identified 12 relevant qualitative studies (figure 1).11–22”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
Informal help-seeking leads on to formal help-seeking.
“they reported how informal help-seeking leads on to formal help-seeking”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
Men reported receiving valuable support from friends, family and colleagues at work.
“Conversely, men reported that they had received valuable support from friends, family and colleagues at work.”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
The overwhelming majority of participants rated formal sources as unhelpful, especially the services of the judicial system.
“However, the overwhelming majority of participants rated formal sources as unhelpful, especially the services of the judicial system.”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
Five included studies explored professional approach; one focused on MSM.
“Five studies explored the professional approach, one of studies focused on MSM.11 15 16 18 20”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
In Machado et al study, two heterosexual men talked about usefulness of being signposted to a psychologist from DVA services.
“In the Machado et al study, two heterosexual men talked about the usefulness of being signposted to a psychologist from DVA services.”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
Six included studies explored inappropriate professional approaches; one focused on gay men.
“Six studies explored inappropriate professional approaches; one of which focused on gay men.12 13 15–17 19”
From Help-seeking by male victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
In Machado and colleagues' primary-level interview study, male heterosexual victims of DVA report how informal help-seeking leads on to formal help-seeking, but the overwhelming majority of participants rated formal sources as unhelpful, especially the services of the judicial system.
“In Machado and colleagues’ primary-level interview study male heterosexual victims of DVA report how informal help-seeking leads on to formal help-seeking but they also say ‘However, the overwhelming majority of participants rated formal sources as unhelpful, especially the services of the judicial system’. [21]”
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 61 · Cited by 122
- Authors
- Machado, A., Hines, D., & Matos, M.
- Affiliations
- Clark University (US)
- University of Minho (PT)
- Venue
- Psychology of Men & Masculinity
- Published
- 2016-07
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 255-264
- ISSN
- 1524-9220 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-151X
- OpenAlex
- W2461225507
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 9.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Psychology of Men & Masculinity (publishedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/76309/2011)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Keywords
- intimate partner violence, male victims, help-seeking, victim needs, psychological violence, physical violence, sexual violence, shame, victim identification, informal support, victim support, help-seeking barriers, mediation model, masculinity, Portugal
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
