Prevalence, causes and consequences of intimate partner violence in Saudi Arabia: a scoping review

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is highly prevalent in many countries, including Saudi Arabia. Studies have shown that 1 in every 10 women in Saudi Arabia is a victim of IPV. This is slightly lower than the prevalence of IPV in the WHO African, Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asia Regions, where approximately 37% of women in long-term partnerships report having experienced physical and sexual IPV during their lifetime. This review identified and analyzed the available empirical studies that explore IPV in Saudi Arabia. Nineteen (n = 19) studies were retrieved from three databases, including Medline, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, as well as Google and Google Scholar. Only empirical studies published in the English language and involving Saudi Arabian citizens were examined. We identified 13 studies that explored the prevalence of IPV and 11 studies that discussed factors associated with IPV. Eight studies examined the effects and consequences of IPV, six studies reported attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge related to IPV, and only three studies investigated victim response to IPV. Nineteen studies included women and only one study involved men as research participants. The findings suggest that previous studies undertaken in Saudi Arabia used quantitative approaches and gathered data via questionnaires, and therefore participants were not given the chance to describe how they defined different forms of IPV. More specifically, previous studies failed to explore the problem of IPV through the lens of Saudi men, creating a research gap related to defining their attitudes and perceptions of this phenomenon.