Irina Bergenfeld
Biographic Data
| ID | 312079 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Irina Bergenfeld |
| GIVEN NAMES | Irina |
| FAMILY NAME | Bergenfeld |
| SIGNATURE | BERGENFELD I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Emory University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2601-2854 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Adverse childhood experiences and psychological, sexual, and physical forms of intimate partner violence in Nepal
Although limitations in generalizability must be considered, these findings extend Western-focused trauma literature by examining ACEs and IPV in Nepal, a historically underrepresented country in this inquiry. Assessing childhood trauma history inclusive of psychological trauma across genders has research and clinical implications, including prevention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Impact of domestic violence legislation on reported intimate partner violence
Adoption of DV legislation may increase women's reported IPV victimization. Future research could explore effect heterogeneity across multiple socio-demographic subgroups and the potential mechanisms through which such policies may benefit women's health
What can public health communicators learn from Reddit? A perspective for the next pandemic
COVID-19 emerged in a world in which vaccine hesitancy was already endemic [1]. According to the Alma Ata Declaration, providing "immunization against the major infectious diseases" is one of governments' basic responsibilities to their citizens [2], yet national governments have often struggled to find effective and ethically sound strategies to improve vaccine uptake among the hesitant and vaccine-averse. In 2019, the World Health Organization …
Validity of a common measure of intimate partner violence perpetration
Common measures of physical and sexual IPV perpetration cannot be used for valid effect estimation without further refinement. The study highlights the need for an expanded item set, content validity assessments, further measurement invariance testing, and then consistent use of the item sets in future intervention trials to support accurate inference on the effectiveness of IPV perpetration prevention interventions
The Media and Sexual Violence Among Adolescents
Growing access to technology and media has presented new avenues of influence on youth attitudes and norms regarding sexuality and sexual violence, as well as new technological pathways through which to perpetrate sexual violence. The aim of this research was to understand contextual influences on and needs for scale-up of sexual violence prevention programming in the media-violence context of Vietnam. We conducted 45 interviews with high school …
Development of the Vietnamese Rape Myths Acceptance Scales
Community Gender Norms and Gender Gaps in Adolescent Agency in Nepal
Sustainable Development Goal 5 challenges governments to address child marriage, which may inhibit girls from developing an agentic self. This paper assesses the direct influence of community gender norms on adolescent agency, and the normative contexts in which gender gaps in adolescent agency are larger or smaller in Nepal. Using baseline data for adolescent girls, adolescent boys, and adults in 54 clusters participating in the CARE Tipping Poi…
Consortium for violence prevention research, leadership training, and implementation for excellence (Converge)
Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC) are two prevalent and highly interconnected global health challenges, yet data and research capacities to study these forms of violence and to generate evidence-based policies and programs remain limited. To address critical shortages in research capacity in Vietnam and to establish a model for other Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), we are establishing CONVERGE-t…
Patterns of Womenʼs exposure to psychological violence
This study confirms the three-class pattern but suggests some differences across countries. and regions. We suggest cut points distinguishing violent from non-violent acts and demarcating levels of severity for future study. Findings offer evidence-based guidance to rectify challenges
Impact of the Care Tipping Point Program in Nepal on adolescent girls’ agency and risk of child, early, or forced marriage
NCT04015856
Qualitative endline results of the tipping point project to prevent child, early and forced marriage in Nepal
Currently, Nepal is not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 - the elimination of harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage by the year 2030. Evidence on what works to prevent child, early and forced marriage often is inattentive to contextual factors that influence intervention effectiveness. This study presents qualitative results of a mixed-methods evaluation of CARE's Tipping Point Program to prevent child, ea…
Preventing sexual violence in Vietnam
Implementation of sexual violence prevention programs in youth-focused organizations in Vietnam requires multilevel strategies that connect outer-setting subject-matter experts with supportive inner-setting leaders and student-facing staff to overcome normative and organizational constraints, and thereby, to deliver institution-wide programming
Adolescent boys’ and girls’ perspectives on social norms surrounding child marriage in Nepal
According to recent data, in Nepal, 38.2% of women aged 20-24 years are married by the age of 18. This analysis of CARE's Tipping Point Initiative seeks to compare Nepali adolescent boys' and girls' perceptions of empirical and normative expectations around child, early and forced marriage. A baseline survey of 1,134 adolescent girls and 1,154 adolescent boys provided 11 items for descriptive quantitative analysis. Thirty in-depth interviews and …
Measuring Sexual Communication in Adolescent Dating Relationships in Vietnam
Sexual communication improves relationship quality and the sexual and reproductive health of both partners. Much of the research on sexual communication among adolescents has been conducted in settings of the Global North and focuses narrowly on sexual health and condom use. Building on prior measures of sexual communication, we developed a set of three scales to measure sexual communication attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior in adolescent da…
Childhood maltreatment class and sexually violent behavior among university men in Vietnam
There is a vital need for screening and intervention with men who have experienced childhood maltreatment in Vietnam to prevent future violence perpetration. Education is needed to break the cycle of violence intergenerationally and in romantic relationships by changing harmful norms around men's sexual privilege and the normalization of childhood maltreatment
Global measurement of intimate partner violence to monitor Sustainable Development Goal 5
Seven DHS lifetime physical-IPV items and five DHS controlling-behaviour items were approximately invariant across 36 LMICs spanning five world regions, such that cross-national comparisons of factor means are reasonable. Measurement-invariance testing over time will inform their utility to monitor SDG5.2.1; cross-national, cross-time measurement-invariance testing of improved sexual and psychological IPV item-sets is needed
Gender norms and sexual consent in dating relationships
Social norms surrounding sex and relationships remain gendered among young people in Vietnam, with men maintaining a privileged role in heterosexual relationships. This analysis explored how university students in Vietnam perceived prevailing gender norms, and how these norms influenced men's understanding of sexual consent in dating relationships. This analysis drew primarily on in-depth interviews with heterosexual men and secondarily from inte…
There Is Always an Excuse to Blame the Girl”
Sexual harassment (SH), defined as unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, presents a global public health issue and a barrier to empowerment for women and girls. To understand the perceived causes of SH in the Jordanian university context, we conducted focus groups ( n = 6) and participatory data collection with students ( n = 317) and interviews with staff and administrators ( n = 5) at a public university. These data identified norms governing m…
Theoretical mediators of GlobalConsent
Sexual violence remains a global problem that disproportionately affects women. Though sexual violence interventions exist, few have been implemented in low- or middle-income countries, and none in Vietnam for young men. We adapted a sexual violence prevention intervention (RealConsent) developed for college men in the U.S. and conducted a randomized controlled trial of the adapted intervention (GlobalConsent) with college men in Vietnam. We asse…
Diagnosing Norms Surrounding Sexual Harassment at a Jordanian University
Sexual harassment (SH) is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) that negatively impacts women's physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. Although SH is a global phenomenon, it also is a contextualized one, with local and institutional norms influencing the ways in which harassment behavior manifests. As more women attend institutions of higher education in Jordan, these women are at increased risk of experiencing SH in university setti…
Navigating Changing Norms Around Sex in Dating Relationships
Social and economic changes in Vietnam since the economic restructuring of the 1980s have caused a shift in norms about premarital sex. While expectations of female chastity remain, sex before marriage is becoming more common among young people. As the formative phase of a parent randomized controlled trial, the present study examined the normative context of sex in dating relationships from the perspectives of young women and men in Vietnam. Men…
A qualitative examination of alcohol use and IPV among Nepali couples in a violence prevention intervention
Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts the physical and mental health of one in three women globally, with equally high rates in rural Nepal. The risk of physical violence, stalking, harassment, and homicide between intimate partners increases when alcohol is used by the perpetrator. This study evaluates the impact of Change Starts at Home , a nine-month intervention to prevent IPV in which 360 married couples in the Terai region of Nepal listen…
Preventing sexual violence in college men
U.S. National Library of Medicine Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04147455 on November 1, 2019 (Version 1). Retrospectively registered. Protocol amendments will be submitted to clinicaltrials.gov
Impact of the Change Starts at Home Trial on Women's experience of intimate partner violence in Nepal
Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects 1 in 3 women worldwide. Research in low- and middle-income countries suggests that multicomponent interventions incorporating media, group work, and community mobilization may be effective at changing social norms that enable such violence. Our study aimed to evaluate the impact of a radio programme plus community engagement versus radio programming alone on the 12-month prevalence of IPV. Using a cluster r…
Navigating Changing Norms Around Sex in Dating Relationships
Social and economic changes in Vietnam since the economic restructuring of the 1980s have caused a shift in norms about premarital sex. While expectations of female chastity remain, sex before marriage is becoming more common among young people. As the formative phase of a parent randomized controlled trial, the present study examined the normative context of sex in dating relationships from the perspectives of young women and men in Vietnam. Men…
Theoretical mediators of GlobalConsent
Sexual violence remains a global problem that disproportionately affects women. Though sexual violence interventions exist, few have been implemented in low- or middle-income countries, and none in Vietnam for young men. We adapted a sexual violence prevention intervention (RealConsent) developed for college men in the U.S. and conducted a randomized controlled trial of the adapted intervention (GlobalConsent) with college men in Vietnam. We asse…
Impact of the Change Starts at Home Trial on Women's experience of intimate partner violence in Nepal
Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects 1 in 3 women worldwide. Research in low- and middle-income countries suggests that multicomponent interventions incorporating media, group work, and community mobilization may be effective at changing social norms that enable such violence. Our study aimed to evaluate the impact of a radio programme plus community engagement versus radio programming alone on the 12-month prevalence of IPV. Using a cluster r…
A qualitative examination of alcohol use and IPV among Nepali couples in a violence prevention intervention
Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts the physical and mental health of one in three women globally, with equally high rates in rural Nepal. The risk of physical violence, stalking, harassment, and homicide between intimate partners increases when alcohol is used by the perpetrator. This study evaluates the impact of Change Starts at Home , a nine-month intervention to prevent IPV in which 360 married couples in the Terai region of Nepal listen…
Preventing sexual violence in college men
U.S. National Library of Medicine Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04147455 on November 1, 2019 (Version 1). Retrospectively registered. Protocol amendments will be submitted to clinicaltrials.gov
Diagnosing Norms Surrounding Sexual Harassment at a Jordanian University
Sexual harassment (SH) is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) that negatively impacts women's physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. Although SH is a global phenomenon, it also is a contextualized one, with local and institutional norms influencing the ways in which harassment behavior manifests. As more women attend institutions of higher education in Jordan, these women are at increased risk of experiencing SH in university setti…
Navigating Changing Norms Around Sex in Dating Relationships
Social and economic changes in Vietnam since the economic restructuring of the 1980s have caused a shift in norms about premarital sex. While expectations of female chastity remain, sex before marriage is becoming more common among young people. As the formative phase of a parent randomized controlled trial, the present study examined the normative context of sex in dating relationships from the perspectives of young women and men in Vietnam. Men…
Measuring Sexual Communication in Adolescent Dating Relationships in Vietnam
Sexual communication improves relationship quality and the sexual and reproductive health of both partners. Much of the research on sexual communication among adolescents has been conducted in settings of the Global North and focuses narrowly on sexual health and condom use. Building on prior measures of sexual communication, we developed a set of three scales to measure sexual communication attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior in adolescent da…
Childhood maltreatment class and sexually violent behavior among university men in Vietnam
There is a vital need for screening and intervention with men who have experienced childhood maltreatment in Vietnam to prevent future violence perpetration. Education is needed to break the cycle of violence intergenerationally and in romantic relationships by changing harmful norms around men's sexual privilege and the normalization of childhood maltreatment
Global measurement of intimate partner violence to monitor Sustainable Development Goal 5
Seven DHS lifetime physical-IPV items and five DHS controlling-behaviour items were approximately invariant across 36 LMICs spanning five world regions, such that cross-national comparisons of factor means are reasonable. Measurement-invariance testing over time will inform their utility to monitor SDG5.2.1; cross-national, cross-time measurement-invariance testing of improved sexual and psychological IPV item-sets is needed
Gender norms and sexual consent in dating relationships
Social norms surrounding sex and relationships remain gendered among young people in Vietnam, with men maintaining a privileged role in heterosexual relationships. This analysis explored how university students in Vietnam perceived prevailing gender norms, and how these norms influenced men's understanding of sexual consent in dating relationships. This analysis drew primarily on in-depth interviews with heterosexual men and secondarily from inte…
There Is Always an Excuse to Blame the Girl”
Sexual harassment (SH), defined as unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, presents a global public health issue and a barrier to empowerment for women and girls. To understand the perceived causes of SH in the Jordanian university context, we conducted focus groups ( n = 6) and participatory data collection with students ( n = 317) and interviews with staff and administrators ( n = 5) at a public university. These data identified norms governing m…
Theoretical mediators of GlobalConsent
Sexual violence remains a global problem that disproportionately affects women. Though sexual violence interventions exist, few have been implemented in low- or middle-income countries, and none in Vietnam for young men. We adapted a sexual violence prevention intervention (RealConsent) developed for college men in the U.S. and conducted a randomized controlled trial of the adapted intervention (GlobalConsent) with college men in Vietnam. We asse…
Consortium for violence prevention research, leadership training, and implementation for excellence (Converge)
Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC) are two prevalent and highly interconnected global health challenges, yet data and research capacities to study these forms of violence and to generate evidence-based policies and programs remain limited. To address critical shortages in research capacity in Vietnam and to establish a model for other Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), we are establishing CONVERGE-t…
Patterns of Womenʼs exposure to psychological violence
This study confirms the three-class pattern but suggests some differences across countries. and regions. We suggest cut points distinguishing violent from non-violent acts and demarcating levels of severity for future study. Findings offer evidence-based guidance to rectify challenges
Impact of the Care Tipping Point Program in Nepal on adolescent girls’ agency and risk of child, early, or forced marriage
NCT04015856
Qualitative endline results of the tipping point project to prevent child, early and forced marriage in Nepal
Currently, Nepal is not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 - the elimination of harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage by the year 2030. Evidence on what works to prevent child, early and forced marriage often is inattentive to contextual factors that influence intervention effectiveness. This study presents qualitative results of a mixed-methods evaluation of CARE's Tipping Point Program to prevent child, ea…
Preventing sexual violence in Vietnam
Implementation of sexual violence prevention programs in youth-focused organizations in Vietnam requires multilevel strategies that connect outer-setting subject-matter experts with supportive inner-setting leaders and student-facing staff to overcome normative and organizational constraints, and thereby, to deliver institution-wide programming
Adolescent boys’ and girls’ perspectives on social norms surrounding child marriage in Nepal
According to recent data, in Nepal, 38.2% of women aged 20-24 years are married by the age of 18. This analysis of CARE's Tipping Point Initiative seeks to compare Nepali adolescent boys' and girls' perceptions of empirical and normative expectations around child, early and forced marriage. A baseline survey of 1,134 adolescent girls and 1,154 adolescent boys provided 11 items for descriptive quantitative analysis. Thirty in-depth interviews and …
What can public health communicators learn from Reddit? A perspective for the next pandemic
COVID-19 emerged in a world in which vaccine hesitancy was already endemic [1]. According to the Alma Ata Declaration, providing "immunization against the major infectious diseases" is one of governments' basic responsibilities to their citizens [2], yet national governments have often struggled to find effective and ethically sound strategies to improve vaccine uptake among the hesitant and vaccine-averse. In 2019, the World Health Organization …
Validity of a common measure of intimate partner violence perpetration
Common measures of physical and sexual IPV perpetration cannot be used for valid effect estimation without further refinement. The study highlights the need for an expanded item set, content validity assessments, further measurement invariance testing, and then consistent use of the item sets in future intervention trials to support accurate inference on the effectiveness of IPV perpetration prevention interventions
The Media and Sexual Violence Among Adolescents
Growing access to technology and media has presented new avenues of influence on youth attitudes and norms regarding sexuality and sexual violence, as well as new technological pathways through which to perpetrate sexual violence. The aim of this research was to understand contextual influences on and needs for scale-up of sexual violence prevention programming in the media-violence context of Vietnam. We conducted 45 interviews with high school …
Development of the Vietnamese Rape Myths Acceptance Scales
Community Gender Norms and Gender Gaps in Adolescent Agency in Nepal
Sustainable Development Goal 5 challenges governments to address child marriage, which may inhibit girls from developing an agentic self. This paper assesses the direct influence of community gender norms on adolescent agency, and the normative contexts in which gender gaps in adolescent agency are larger or smaller in Nepal. Using baseline data for adolescent girls, adolescent boys, and adults in 54 clusters participating in the CARE Tipping Poi…
Adverse childhood experiences and psychological, sexual, and physical forms of intimate partner violence in Nepal
Although limitations in generalizability must be considered, these findings extend Western-focused trauma literature by examining ACEs and IPV in Nepal, a historically underrepresented country in this inquiry. Assessing childhood trauma history inclusive of psychological trauma across genders has research and clinical implications, including prevention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Impact of domestic violence legislation on reported intimate partner violence
Adoption of DV legislation may increase women's reported IPV victimization. Future research could explore effect heterogeneity across multiple socio-demographic subgroups and the potential mechanisms through which such policies may benefit women's health
Psychology (22 works) · Medicine (16 works) · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (15 works) · Developmental psychology (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Poison control (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works) · Environmental health (9 works)