Domestic Violence as a Factor in Reproductive Fears (Based on Materials from Thematic Communities on the VKontakte Social Network)

Gafizova Natal'ya Borisovna ORCID: 0000-0001-6416-2015 PhD in History Associate Professor; Department of Management Theory; Ivanovo Branch of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education 'Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration' 15 Dunaeva St., block 33, Ivanovo, Ivanovo region, 153037, Russia gafizova-nb@ranepa.ru

Introduction

The problem of domestic violence is relevant all over the world. In the light of the demographic challenges that our state is solving, it acquires a special meaning. The unprecedented efforts currently being made by our State to support the family, parenthood and childhood are designed to create the most favorable conditions for a woman to realize the socially significant role of a mother. Prevention and overcoming the consequences of domestic violence is part of the family agenda of our society and the state.

The normative definition of violence against women is given in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993. It refers to any act of gender-based violence that causes or is likely to cause physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, as well as threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life. The Declaration names family, traditions, work, and the State among the most common areas of violence against women.

The phenomenon of violence against women is being investigated by representatives of various sciences. Lawyers focus on the dynamics of relevant offenses, their jurisdiction, legal responsibility, effectiveness of law enforcement, and the state's obligations to implement international law into national legislation ^[1-6]. A large amount of research belongs to doctors and psychologists who investigate the causes of domestic violence, its consequences for the physical and psychological health of women, ways to prevent and help victims ^[7-11] and sociologists, whose research allows them to identify the social roots of domestic violence, factors influencing its dynamics, the most vulnerable categories of women to domestic violence, the role of gender regimes and gender stereotyping, public opinion and various social institutions, including social networks and media ^[12-18].

Violent practices in the family are usually referred to as domestic violence, which in turn can be understood by researchers in different ways: in a broad sense - as any violent acts against women (of any age, status) and in a narrow sense – as violence from the marital partner ^{[19, p. 74]}. This article examines domestic violence in a broad sense – that is, as violence by any family member.

It is also generally accepted among researchers to classify types of domestic violence: physical, sexual, psychological, economic, the use of children to establish control over an adult woman, neglect of basic needs ^{[20, 7]}.

Pregnant women and women on maternity leave are among the most vulnerable groups of women to domestic violence. During this life period, the determinants of vulnerability are: a physical condition that prevents habitual activity; a forced break in employment, contributing to the emergence of economic dependence on those family members who bear the responsibilities of financial support; limited social contacts, a woman's isolation in the processes of care and care, subordination of her life schedule to the needs of the baby and other members families.

The life situation experienced in connection with the expectation of childbirth and the birth of a child is accompanied by a special emotional state, including polar emotions and feelings – from the joy of meeting a baby to a multitude of fears, among which, according to the author's research, economic, status and physiological predominate ^{[21, p. 96]}. Reproductive fears are a special kind of social fears that manifest themselves in the presence of negative emotional experiences identified by an individual as a state of danger, anxiety, or fear of something. What unites these emotional experiences is their connection with the processes of preparing for pregnancy, conceiving and carrying a child, caring for an infant, fulfilling a social role, transforming family relationships, and the established system of household chores.

Social networks allow people to unite and discuss what interests, worries, and worries them at random, in accordance with their interests, requests, and needs. Participation in thematic communities helps women overcome the state of exclusion from habitual relationships, they provide an opportunity to channel fears, and also have a pronounced therapeutic (compensatory) effect, since they allow them to receive psychological and informational support from other members of the community.

Research methods

In order to study the reproductive fears experienced by women in situations of domestic violence, a qualitative content analysis of three thematic communities on the VKontakte social network was carried out: "Overheard by pregnant women and mothers", "Birth stories. Pregnancy and childbirth", "Overheard in pregnant women"[Overheard in pregnant women (vk.com ); Birth history. Pregnancy and childbirth. (vk.com ); Overheard by pregnant women and moms (vk.com )].

The features of these communities are: the lack of connection to the region / city; the number of participants is more than 70,000 people, the presence of daily activity initiated by the community members themselves.

For the analysis, we selected posts initiated by the group members during one calendar month (January 2025), which described situations of domestic violence, as well as comments on them. The processing was carried out without the use of specialized programs and services.

The key research questions were: What types of domestic violence are women exposed to during pregnancy and childbirth? How do women perceive and describe these situations? How are these situations perceived by community members and reflected in the comments? Who is more often the subject of violence? What are the consequences for the woman and the baby? How do situations of domestic violence affect a woman's reproductive fears?

Results

First of all, it is worth noting that the topic of domestic violence is on the periphery of the topics discussed by the community members. During the month under study, 29 analysis units (posts and comments to them) were selected, explicitly or indirectly indicating the presence of manifestations of domestic violence. All types of domestic violence were identified, with the exception of sexual violence (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The representation of various types of domestic violence, in particular %

So, psychological violence has become the most common type of domestic violence. And this correlates with the conclusions of other researchers who claim that psychological violence "is the most common and is present in almost all cases of domestic violence" ^{[20, p. 7]}. This type of violence can manifest itself in completely different ways: in the form of insults, obsessive highlighting of shortcomings, threats, attempts to control various aspects of life, imposing feelings of guilt. The subjects of violence are the husband, the mother-in-law and the woman herself in relation to the child.

Psychological violence on the part of her husband manifests itself in the form of insults, for example: There is a husband and a child of 1.3 years old. There are constant quarrels with my husband, and I always keep silent, I try to get away from the conflict... [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1038883 ] and aggressive communication: ... it was hard in the hospital... with the suture, it was very painful and difficult to take care of my son, my husband managed to yell at me on the phone at a time when I couldn't talk to him, because the girls slept with me in the ward, and he says to this day that it was my own fault, he yelled at me for allegedly not talking to him properly there, but I remember that moment, I was sitting on the bench telling him everything in a whisper, and it was awkward to talk in front of the girls, I didn't want to disturb their sleep, nor I didn 't say a bad word to him . [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1038883]. Elementary indifference also hurts a woman.: The husband does not appreciate, does not help, neither mentally, nor physically, nor financially, tired. Only humiliation [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3966846 ].

Husbands bully their wives: I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, I apologized. What else do you need? And he told me that only a moron could do that, and it started with him.... where did I look before... etc. [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1038883 ] ; upon returning (from the hospital - approx. at home, I began to notice that my husband, knowing what a difficult birth it was, says phrases such as "thick", "as if a concrete slab lay on me", goes up to the child, sees the daughter's belly (it's a little inflated) and says "oh daughter, the belly is like mom's" [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1027136].

The subjects of bullying are also mothers-in-law, most often the reason is the excess weight gained by a woman during pregnancy: ...he can say in front of everyone: "it's time for you to go on a diet," at such moments I expect protection and support from my husband, but he always says: "really? Did she say that? I didn't even hear it." [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3984248 ]; or: Girls, what would you do if your mother-in-law openly stated that you need to lose weight, every time we meet, and sends me links... to channels about weight loss, although she is far from ideal... I hold back more for the sake of my husband and child....the weight is slowly coming off, but it's going away... it's a shame, and every time it's harder for me not to give her a sharp answer [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3969587 ].

Psychological violence is usually associated with gender stereotypes and a patriarchal legacy, according to which only the family member who makes a financial contribution and has moral authority has a voice.: My mother-in-law has the idea that she only deals with those who earn money in the family, because of this she does not communicate with the wife of her husband's older brother, she said that she is nobody... [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3984248 ].

Women themselves, especially those experiencing postpartum depression, can also become subjects of psychological violence, as in the case of this woman, the mother of 4-year-old and 3-month-old children: I'm ashamed to admit and write all this, but with the advent of the second child, the eldest child is terribly annoying ... If the eldest child does not fall asleep for a long time, I start yelling if he doesn't want to eat, I start threatening that he won't get anything else at all, if he doesn't want to collect toys, I threaten again that I will throw out all the toys and all this is accompanied by terrible nerves, I raise my voice… Even if he cries, I'm torn with anger. I blow up over any little thing, and my older brother takes it out on me, you might say for nothing. I'm a terrible mother, I beat myself up every night for this, but during the day it's like a beast wakes up in me towards my eldest. I don't understand what's happening to me. I understand that I am traumatizing the child with this… What should I do, do you have any advice? Has anyone ever had this? [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3972237].

Thus, it can be concluded that psychological violence manifests itself in the context of such reproductive fears as physiological (fear of losing attractiveness due to childbirth, fear of pain and physical vulnerability), economic (fear of becoming financially dependent and losing subjectivity), fear of non-compliance with normative motherhood and postpartum depression.

Economic violence is the second most common type of domestic violence. It is associated with cost control, refusal to support children, prioritization of the offender's own needs and expenses, etc. The analysis shows that the trigger of economic violence is interpersonal conflicts, divorce, as well as psychological pressure and intimidation, such as: I want to divorce my husband, I have a child of 1.5 years, but I'm afraid how I will continue My husband said that he would not pay alimony to either the child or me, that he would appeal. He will buy whatever HE DECIDES the child needs and that's it, but he will not pay alimony [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1021721 ]. The situation is aggravated by insufficient financial literacy, when a woman is not fully aware of her property rights: Her husband constantly ... goes somewhere to drink, go for a walk... We have a one-year-old child together, a mortgage and a loan (taken on by me). I'm currently on maternity leave, but I'm working a little bit. The husband is not particularly worried about the financial side of the family, only in words, and in any quarrel he manipulates money and says that the loans are mine and pay yourself ... [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3978387 ].

Husbands often do not perceive a woman as an equal, and they make economic decisions to the detriment of the interests of other family members.: She has been married to her husband for more than 10 years, and has two children. A few years ago, without my knowledge, he took out a loan for a new car and confronted me with the fact, then she forgave him, she seemed to want it better for the family; now history repeats itself again, he took and bought his parents equipment as a gift for the new year. I found out when they came to congratulate me on January 1st. I said that's not how it's done in the family, to which he said that I was making a big deal out of a molehill, like he did the right thing[https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1017823 ].

Or does the spouse put their own needs and expenses first?: My husband and I have been together for 7 years, we have two children. At the same time, they lived with my parents all the time, except for the last year. Pleasure is not cheap… We thought about it together with my husband, and decided that he would sign a contract in order to rent an apartment with payments and salaries. He signed the contract. So what? ... He started spending that money on anything.… He'll buy himself a laptop, or a motorcycle.… He won't give me any money normally, or at least buy a toy for the kids. And now the question is, what's all this for me, if I can't pay for an apartment because I don't work, and when I tell him to spend the money on housing and all household items, the answer is almost the same – parents will help ... [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3976326 ]. It should be noted that this post has gathered a lot of comments that have brought down a huge wave of negative reviews on the author of the post: The hair stands on end from such families. He will be gone and you will get your money. Let the person enjoy at least something while there is still such an opportunity. In general, you need to think with your head and create conditions before having children [Ibid.]. Many of the comments called on the woman herself to go to work, to gain financial independence from her parents and husband: Alas. But it wasn't for you and the children that the man went to his death. Ask your parents not to give you more money. And yes, if the child is no longer a baby, go to work. Now you only need to rely on yourself financially [Ibid.].

So, it is obvious that economic violence is formed under the influence of gender stereotypes (the husband is a breadwinner and as a breadwinner himself, regardless of anyone, makes financial decisions), the triggers are strained interpersonal relationships, domestic troubles and financial difficulties – lack of housing, debt, etc.

Giving birth to a child for a woman often means completely subordinating her interests to the needs of the baby, her life, especially when her husband is not involved in the care processes, turns into an endless "running on the spot" and waiting for what will never come – the child will grow up and it will be easier. In such a situation, neglect of basic needs as a form of violence has an additional traumatic effect.: I took her to all the hospitals, they checked her from and to ... my husband was working and he had to paint the car ... after work he drove (he works until 8)... it dragged on for half the summer ...he came for 12, went to bed ... separately, because he needs to get enough sleep for work... Says he will sit with her when he grows up and it will be easier... [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1031165 ]; or for example: I got out of maternity leave when the child was three months old, my husband has problems with work, a mortgage, and payments only from work (not even 20k), children are not allowed because of income. My husband sometimes likes to drink with friends... if I ask him to come home early to help with the baby before going to bed, he doesn't come... [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1018974 ]. As you can see, this type of domestic violence contributes to serious emotional burnout and increases status risks.

There are still practices of using children to establish control over an adult woman. The subjects of violence in this case are the spouse and mother-in-law. Various aspects of life are controlled. For example, the parenting process: she wants me to connect to videos 2-3 times a day and show her what the child is doing, what he has learned, etc. [https://vk.com/wall-150079080_1025360 ]; or the quality of doing household chores and keeping yourself presentable: My husband is very demanding, it is difficult for me to keep up with the child (he is already a year old), and to put myself in order, and to keep the house clean. There are perfect housewives from birth, but this is not about me. And then his parents come to stay for a month, and he's been bothering me with the preparation. [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3983693]. It should be noted that the general tone of comments on such posts indicates that community members reject such behavior on the part of their mother-in-law and husband: Once the husband has the financial means, call a cleaning service, a babysitter for a few hours, or ask relatives to sit down and take time to the salon [Ibid.].

The case in which we see a situation of physical violence, in its essence demonstrates the complex nature of domestic violence – the intertwining of all types of violent acts – physical, economic and psychological: Our dad couldn't come to his place of birth, he was released just now. I've been waiting for his arrival so much that I can't put it into words. But there was no limit to my disappointment. A completely different person has arrived, I just can't recognize him. Nervous, constantly shouting, aggressive towards me and our child… And yesterday, it hurts to write about it, but he beat me up. Now I don't know what to do, and it's scary to stay with him, and it's scary to leave him. I'm afraid of him... there's another factor that stops me, it's money, I don't know what to do just. What to do? What should I do? ... [https://vk.com/wall-81840381_3967562]. It is obvious that the reason for the violent actions lies in the post-traumatic syndrome experienced by the spouse of the victim. Another reason that can explain psychological and physical aggression is compulsive (compensatory) masculinity, when a man compensates for his own non–compliance with the standards of "brutal masculinity" through violence against weaker men.

It is important to emphasize that the tone of the comments to this post demonstrates an unequivocal rejection of any, but above all physical violence: Escape [Ibid.]; Leave. To my mom, to a friend, to a rented apartment – it doesn't matter. Don't think about yourself, think about the child. There are shelters for mothers in difficult situations. There are phone numbers for psychological help. By no means convince yourself that this is normal. Don't let the situation take its course. Don't put up with it. Apply for alimony for the maintenance of yourself and the child. He has PTSD, which he either treats and works out with a therapist, or loses his family. Or is it okay for you that one day he will kill you? And if the child gets hurt, will the money stop too? He is an adult, and the fate of your three-month-old baby (who cannot defend himself) is only in your hands [Ibid.]; A statement against him. Run for the sake of the child!!!! In a fit of anger, he can kill a child with a light blow! Flip the stroller over! I want to punch you now too! You are not a mother! We need to leave now! While you're reading the comments, get dressed and leave! I hope you're okay and leave. Don't listen to those who write that it's being treated! No! If he hit you and you didn't fight back, so that he would run away from fear, dropping his sneakers, then he will beat you and beat you! [Ibid.].

Conclusion

Summing up the article, I would like to note the following. Firstly, thematic communities that unite women during pregnancy, childbirth and infant care are not only a way of communication between the participants (the opportunity to share relevant information, ask for advice from more experienced participants, vent emotions, etc.), but also a way to channel reproductive fears – various kinds of anxieties, fears experienced by women in the period of preparation for pregnancy and childbirth, carrying a child, childbirth and subsequent care for a newborn.

The conducted content analysis allowed us to establish that during this life period a woman becomes more vulnerable to domestic violence, and the subjects of violence, as a rule, are those family members who have economic and psychological levers of influence - in our case, it is the husband and mother-in-law.

Content analysis revealed cases of all types of domestic violence, with the exception of sexual violence. Psychological treatment has become the most common type. The triggers for all types of domestic violence are hardship and poverty, unresolved housing problems, interpersonal conflicts, and divorce. The situation is aggravated by the legal and financial illiteracy of women.

Incidents of domestic violence increase a woman's reproductive fears. It can be assumed that in the future they may lead to adjustments in reproductive attitudes and plans, because awareness of their vulnerability may encourage a woman to refuse to have subsequent children. Of particular concern is physical violence, which can be fraught with serious damage to the physical and mental health of women and children.

The study showed that social protection authorities and the healthcare system are facing a new task for the rehabilitation of men with PTSD, and this rehabilitation should take into account not only the factor of physical health, but also the psychological well-being of men, which will affect their relationships with other family members. This work can be carried out under the auspices of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On the national Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and for the future up to 2036", which sets out the task of increasing by 2030 the level of satisfaction of participants in a special military operation with conditions for medical rehabilitation, retraining and employment within the framework of the national goal "Preservation of the population, strengthening people's health and well-being, supporting families." Also, from an applied perspective, the solution to the problem of domestic violence and the prevention of reproductive fears is seen, in addition to law enforcement mechanisms, in the field of improving the legal and financial culture of women, and making useful legal, psychological, and financial information available to them.

I would also like to outline the research prospects. They are seen in two directions. The first is related to the study of social networks and the forms of representation of domestic violence in them. We have found that social networks and thematic communities act as ways to channel fears and anxieties, including those caused by incidents of domestic violence. In this regard, it is important to understand how this source can be used for a deeper analysis of domestic violence, its forms, causes, and manifestations. The second is related to the study of reproductive fears, their role in the realization of a woman's socially significant function as a mother. Social networks provide extensive material for identifying and subsequent analysis of the repertoire of reproductive fears, their sources, and their impact on the formation and fulfillment of the maternal role.