Physicians' Attitudes and Preparedness to Deal with Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Serbia

Abstract

This study aimed to measure attitudes and perceived preparedness of physicians in Serbia to deal with intimate partner violence against women and to test and culturally validate scales that were used for these measurements. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 435 physicians from 23 primary healthcare centers in Serbia. Physicians' attitudes toward IPV were better than perceived preparedness (mean score 52.03 out of 100, SD 10.78 vs. 46.92 out of 100, SD 21.71). Three components of attitudes were identified, explaining 50.34 % of variance. Both attitudes and preparedness scales proved to have good reliability (alpha = 0.66 and alpha = 0.94). Previous education moderately predicted preparedness, however it was inconsistently associated with attitudes.