Using Social Media to Recruit Seldom-Heard Groups

Reaching Women and Girls with Experience of Violence in Iran

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5933657
AutoresLadan Hashemi (0000-0001-6449-3834, City, University of London, autor de correspondencia), Fateme Babakhani (Mehre Shams Afarid, Non-Governmental Domestic Violence Organisation for Women and Children, Urmia, Iran), Nadia Aghtaie (University of Bristol), Shea Mcmanu (0000-0003-2711-0819, City, University of London)
Año2024
Volumen13
Número5
Páginas246
Fecha de publicación2024-04-30
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/socsci13050246
OpenAlexW4396518938
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas17

Social media recruitment and online surveys are valuable tools in social science research, but their effectiveness in reaching seldom-heard victims of gender violence in low-middle income (LMI) countries is under-explored. This empirical study aims to: (1) describe violence and abuse experiences and (2) assess the benefits and limitations of using social media to document violence against women and girls (VAWGs) in a LMI country to render visible the experiences of potentially isolated victims. A total of 453 Iranian women (aged 14-59, mean = 28.8, SD = 8.04) responded to an Instagram invitation for a study on women's health and violence exposure from February 2020 to January 2022. The questionnaire covered general gendered abuse, domestic violence (DV), and forced unemployment. The analysis was performed using Stata 17. Nearly all participants reported abuse, including sexual (85.0%), psychological (83.4%), and technology-facilitated (57.4%) abuse, with 77.4% experiencing multiple forms. The street (62%) and home (52.8%) were common abuse locations. The perpetrators included known individuals (75.9%) and strangers (80.8%), with 56.7% reporting abuse by both. DV was reported by 72.6%, mainly involving psychological (73.1%), physical (53.4%), and/or sexual (17.2%) violence, with fathers (47.8%), husbands (42.7%), and brothers (40.2%) as frequent perpetrators. A quarter reported forced unemployment. Those experiencing DV and/or forced unemployment showed higher depression levels, suicidal ideation, and lower marital satisfaction. The study suggests using social media recruitment for VAWG research but cautions against overgeneralising from these data

Criminology · Domestic violence · Environmental health · Poison control · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychological abuse · Sexual abuse · Sexual violence · Social media · Suicidal ideation · Suicide prevention · Unemployment · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Clinical Psychology · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues