Livelihoods of young women with and without disabilities in KwaZulu-Natal during COVID-19.

Background: Persons with disabilities are more likely to have poorer livelihood outcomes, including food insecurity. Inequalities are heightened for young women with disabilities, especially in times of crisis.

Objectives: To understand the livelihood experience of young South African women with and without disabilities during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).

Couples, alcohol use and experience of intimate partner violence among young women in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa: A mixed methods study.

Alcohol is recognized as a driver of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and experience, but relatively little research has focused on the role of couples' drinking patterns, nor pathways between alcohol and violence. We draw on data collected among young (18-30 year old) people living in informal settlements who self-selected to enroll in an intervention trial to reduce IPV in Durban, South Africa to understand these dynamics. Between September 2015 and September 2016 quantitative data were collected from women, who reported on their own experiences of IPV and alcohol use, as well as their partner's own alcohol use.

Change in emotional distress, anxiety, depression and PTSD from pre- to post-flood exposure in women residing in low-income settings in South Africa.

Floods are increasing in frequency and may increase the risk for experiencing emotional distress, anxiety, depression and PTSD. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of damage, loss, injury and death resulting from floods that occurred in and around the city of Durban, South Africa, in April 2022, and associated changes in mental health pre- to post-floods in a low-income setting. Seventy-three women between the ages of 18 and 45, residing in flood affected, low-income settings, were interviewed prior to the floods occurring.

Mutuality as a method: advancing a social paradigm for global mental health through mutual learning.

Purpose: Calls for "mutuality" in global mental health (GMH) aim to produce knowledge more equitably across epistemic and power differences. With funding, convening, and publishing power still concentrated in institutions in the global North, efforts to decolonize GMH emphasize the need for mutual learning instead of unidirectional knowledge transfers. This article reflects on mutuality as a concept and practice that engenders sustainable relations, conceptual innovation, and queries how epistemic power can be shared.

Challenges and opportunities in coproduction: reflections on working with young people to develop an intervention to prevent violence in informal settlements in South Africa.

Coproduction is widely recognised as essential to the development of effective and sustainable complex health interventions. Through involving potential end users in the design of interventions, coproduction provides a means of challenging power relations and ensuring the intervention being implemented accurately reflects lived experiences. Yet, how do we ensure that coproduction delivers on this promise? What methods or techniques can we use to challenge power relations and ensure interventions are both more effective and sustainable in the longer term? To answer these questions, we openly reflect on the coproduction process used as part of Siyaphambili Youth ('Youth Moving Forward'), a 3-year project to create an intervention to address the social contextual factors that create of health risks for young people living in informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.

Assessing risk factors and health impacts across different forms of exchange sex among young women in informal settlements in South Africa: A cross-sectional study.

For women in South Africa, engaging in exchange sex, including transactional sex (TS), or sex work (SW), is associated with several shared poor health outcomes; yet the practices themselves differ in meaningful ways. SW is a form of commodity exchange, while TS is grounded in gendered relationship expectations of male provision and aspects of emotional intimacy. Additionally, exchange sex types could be imagined on a "continuum of instrumentality" from relationships that do not include material support; to those characterized, but not driven by support; to those primarily motivated by material support.

Elements of the Design and Implementation of Interventions to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Associated with Success: Reflections from the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls? Global Programme.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has a large and sustained impact on women's mental health, and so effective prevention is critical. A review of 96 rigorous evaluations of interventions for their impact on violence against women and girls (mostly IPV) found that several intervention approaches were effective. However, not every evaluation of a 'successful approach' showed success in reducing IPV.

Cellphones and romantic relationships of young women in urban informal settlements in South Africa.

Cellphones have impacted on people's intimate sexual relationships. Using the framework of relationship formation, maintenance and ending, we explore how cellphones and attendant social media have impacted on relationships among a group of young women living in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa. We conducted in-depth repeat interviews with 15 women enrolled in the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures trial, as well as group discussions and light-touch participant observation.

Learnings from the evaluation of HERrespect: a factory-based intervention to prevent intimate partner and workplace violence against female garment workers in Bangladesh.

: Intimate partner violence (IPV) and workplace violence (WPV) against women are widespread globally, and we set out to establish whether an intervention on gender-transformative programming delivered to Bangladeshi garment factory workers could reduce women's experience of IPV and WPV. We developed and tested an intervention, HERrespect and encountered considerable obstacles. : To describe the challenges in program implementation and evaluation in the factories and the serious implications that arose for the study outcomes.

Differential impact on men in an IPV prevention intervention: A post hoc analysis using latent class analysis of the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention in South Africa.

Working with men to prevent their perpetration of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence is increasingly recognised as effective. However, in any given context there are a multiplicity of masculinities, each of which has a different association with violence perpetration. There remains lack of clarity about whether such interventions impact all men and masculinities equally.

Pathways of change: qualitative evaluations of intimate partner violence prevention programmes in Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Tajikistan.

A critical component of evaluations of the effectiveness of intimate partner violence prevention programmes involves understanding pathways of change among individuals who participate in such programmes, and the intervention or contextual elements that support or hinder these. This paper draws on qualitative evaluations of four intimate partner violence prevention programmes in Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Tajikistan conducted as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Programme. Using a comparative case study approach, a secondary analysis was applied to thematically analysed data to explore how and why men and women change in response to different types of programmes across diverse contexts.

Did young women in South African informal settlements display increased agency after participating in the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention? A qualitative evaluation.

This paper investigates the impact of the Stepping Stones Creating Futures (SSCF) intervention on young women in informal settlements in eThekwini, South Africa. Specifically, whether following participation in the intervention the young women experienced a reduction in intimate partner violence, strengthened agency and shifted gender relations. Where changes occurred, it examines how they occurred, and barriers and enablers to change.

Risk factors for alcohol and drug misuse amongst young women in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa.

Alcohol and drug misuse (ADM) pose a significant disease burden globally. Yet, there remains a gap in understanding risk factors associated with women's ADM, particularly those in marginalised settings. We investigated risk factors associated with ADM amongst young women in urban informal settlements in South Africa.

A Randomized Sham-controlled Trial of 1-Hz and 10-Hz Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Civilian Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Un essai randomisé contrôlé simulé de stimulation magnétique transcrânienne repetitive (SMTr) de 1 Hz et 10 Hz du cortex préfrontal dorsolatéral droit dans le trouble de stress post-traumatique chez des civils.

Objective: Despite effective psychological and pharmacological treatments, there is a large unmet burden of illness in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive intervention and a putative treatment strategy for PTSD. The evidence base to date suggests that rTMS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), in particular the right DLPFC, leads to improvements in PTSD symptoms.

Exploring young women's reproductive decision-making, agency and social norms in South African informal settlements.

This paper explores reproductive decision-making among young women in South Africa's informal settlements and considers whether and how agency and social norm theory inform their decisions. Understanding whether, when and how young women make decisions about conception and motherhood is critical for supporting women to avoid unplanned, early motherhood. Qualitative data were collected from 15 young women in informal settlements in eThekwini, South Africa at three time points over 18 months, using in-depth interviews, participant observation and photovoice, and were analysed inductively.

New learnings on drivers of men's physical and/or sexual violence against their female partners, and women's experiences of this, and the implications for prevention interventions.

: Understanding the drivers of intimate partner violence (IPV), perpetrated by men and experienced by women, is a critical task for developing effective prevention programmes.: To provide a comprehensive assessment of the drivers of IPV.: A comprehensive review of the drivers of IPV, at the end of a six-year programme of research through the with reference to other important research in the field.

Stepping Stones and Creating Futures Intervention to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence Among Young People: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: Young people, not in formal employment or education, face exceedingly high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV). We evaluated whether Stepping Stones and Creating Futures, compared with a wait-list control, can reduce IPV and strengthen livelihoods.

Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial with 34 clusters in urban informal settlements in eThekwini Municipality, South Africa.

'When you talk to someone in a bad way or always put her under pressure, it is actually worse than beating her': Conceptions and experiences of emotional intimate partner violence in Rwanda and South Africa.

Emotional intimate partner violence (IPV) is extremely common and has significant health and social consequences, yet typically receives much less attention in research and programming than physical and sexual IPV. This limits our understanding of how women experience and understand emotional IPV in different settings, which is required to inform effective prevention and response. This paper draws on qualitative data collected in mixed-methods impact evaluations of two IPV prevention programmes conducted as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Global Programme.

Factors associated with young people's attendance at an IPV prevention intervention in informal settlements in South Africa: A prospective analysis.

Understanding factors shaping attendance at behavioural interventions is critical for programmatic planning. Through the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention trial amongst young (18-30) women and men to reduce intimate partner violence and strengthen livelihoods, we prospectively assessed factors associated with intervention attendance. Baseline data were collected between September 2015 and September 2016 among 677 women and 675 men.

Why interventions to prevent intimate partner violence and HIV have failed young women in southern Africa.

Introduction: Adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 years have some of the highest HIV incidence rates globally, with girls two to four times more likely to be living with HIV than their male peers. High levels of intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by this age group is a significant risk factor for HIV acquisition. While behavioural interventions to prevent IPV and HIV in southern Africa have seen some success in reducing self-reported experiences of IPV, these interventions have largely failed to achieve similar outcomes for young women.

Workplace violence in Bangladesh's garment industry.

Workplace violence (WPV) is widely reported in the Bangladeshi garment industry, impacting women workers' health and wellbeing. We explore factors associated with female workers experience or witnessing of WPV and perpetration by managers, in eight Bangladeshi garment factories. We hypothesise workers' experience of WPV is associated with i) individual factors, potentially impacting productivity (age, depression, length of work, and disability/functional limitations), ii) experience of intimate partner violence (IPV), and iii) factory culture (management styles, and adherence to laws around workers' rights).

Exploring young women's constructions of love and strategies to navigate violent relationships in South African informal settlements.

This paper explores young women's experiences and constructions of love-relationships and intimate partner violence in South Africa, and the role of agency in women's decisions to remain in or leave violent love-relationships. Understanding why young women stay in or leave violent love-relationships is key to developing nuanced understandings of agency and informing intimate partner violence prevention interventions. Data were collected from 15 young women in informal settlements in eThekwini Municipality, South Africa, via in-depth interviews, photovoice and participant observation, and were analysed inductively.

Are women's experiences of emotional and economic intimate partner violence associated with HIV-risk behaviour? A cross-sectional analysis of young women in informal settlements in South Africa.

Women's experiences of emotional intimate partner violence (IPV) and economic IPV are rarely considered in research on women's HIV-risk. Using cross-sectional data of young women (18-30) in Durban, South Africa, we assessed whether women's experiences of emotional IPV and economic IPV were independently associated with six HIV-risk behaviours. Amongst 680 women enrolled between September 2015 and September 2016, past year emotional IPV (78.

Magnitude and correlates of intimate partner violence against female garment workers from selected factories in Bangladesh.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a huge public health, development and human rights issue worldwide. Despite the fact that working women in patriarchal contexts commonly report higher level of IPV, literature on this subject is still scanty. This paper assessed the magnitude of different types of IPV against female garment workers and identified its correlates using cross-sectional survey data collected during September-December, 2016 from 800 female garment workers randomly selected from lists provided by eight garment factories in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Associations between poverty, mental health and substance use, gender power, and intimate partner violence amongst young (18-30) women and men in urban informal settlements in South Africa: A cross-sectional study and structural equation model.

Unlabelled: Research suggests that poverty is a key driver of intimate partner violence (IPV), however detailed analysis suggests that this relationship is not clear, either for women's experience or men's perpetration of IPV. We explored associations between poverty and IPV using cross-sectional data from the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures cluster randomized control trial, in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa, with young (18-30) people. Using logistic regression and structural equation modelling we assess associations between poverty and women's experience and men's perpetration of physical and/or sexual IPV in the past 12 months.