Factors of the alleged increase in Domestic Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Since April of 2020, we have endured a time of confinement within our families due to the restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, domestic violence cases have allegedly increased which has placed many individuals at risk. The purpose of this project is to explore factors associated with increased domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords such as factors, COVID-19, and domestic violence were used to identify existing studies for this project. If the articles studied factors of domestic violence before the pandemic or included previous relationship issues, they were excluded from my project. Participants ranged from college students in romantic relationships to individuals in marital relationships and were selected using random assignment, snowball, and network sampling. After studying these participants, results show an increase in domestic violence due to having weak social support systems, no access to social services, and an increase in negative emotions. As the increase in domestic violence during the pandemic has placed many individuals at risk, successfully identifying the reasons behind this can help professionals competently work with susceptible individuals. Social services should remain open as much as possible to help keep victims' social supports strong and negative emotions at bay. In the future, we should focus on ways of identifying valid solutions to help decrease abusive behaviors for both men and women.