Mental Health and Self-Esteem of Women Victims of Violence: Integrative Review

Abstract

This study aimed to demonstrate the impacts that can affect the mental health and self-esteem of women who have suffered some type of violence, distancing them from socializing. This is a narrative review, with retrospective data collection. The keywords used were determined from the choice of the theme explored: Violence against women; Gender violence; Mental health. Data were collected through the selection of scientific articles published from 2011 to 2020 in journals indexed in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO), PubMed and Science Direct databases. 1,067 articles were retrieved, of which 902 were excluded after selecting titles and abstracts. It totaled 165 complete articles evaluated with eligibility and 42 directly related to violence against women. Of these, 16 works related to women who had suffered some type of violence were identified, which were synthesized and included in the review. Violence against women carries its problematization with origins in historical-social processes of gender differentiation, thus bringing particularities that deserve attention due to the impact it has on global public health. The reasons why women are assaulted by intimate partners are for domination over women, family heads, provision of the home and heightened sexuality. All these labels, allied to living with domestic violence, whether from the mother and/or herself, lead women to occupy a space established by the patriarchy and intrinsic machismo in the conservative family bases that persist in continuing to exist. These factors contribute brutally for women to develop psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, abuse of psychoactive substances and suicidal behaviors, suggesting impacts on the development of children who witness or live with these aggressions, getting also exposed to aggression. The development of psychological disorders in these women goes beyond violence itself to the moral and social concepts of society that make it difficult to overcome aggressions. These results show the need to develop public educational activities and, mainly, to keep them aligned with the positions, decisions and discussions of the feminist agenda. As highlighted, the feminist movement is an idealizer, constant protector of women and developer of gender equity practices.