title: Lebanese medical students' exposure to domestic violence: does it affect helping survivors?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our purpose was to assess medical students' willingness to help women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and its relation to past exposure to violence.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study of medical students enrolled in three major universities in Beirut was carried out: 545 students filled out a self-administered questionnaire. The Inventory of Beliefs About Wife Beating, the Attitudes Toward Women's scale, the Marriage Role Expectations Inventory, the Conflict Tactics scale, and the Trauma Symptoms scale were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority (93.6%) of medical students believed that battered wives should be helped by either social or governmental agencies, but only 48% showed readiness to provide help themselves. Female medical students were significantly more likely to be willing to help survivors of violence, whereas students exposed to domestic violence in childhood were significantly less likely to do so. Female medical students previously exposed to violence had significantly higher scores on the Briere and Runtz's Trauma Symptom Checklist, indicating more negative trauma-related symptoms. Multivariate analysis revealed that the students' exposure to verbal aggression, their marital role expectations, attitudes toward women, and parents' marital status accounted for 26% of the variability in the Helping Battered Wives score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study suggest that the medical students' past exposure to DV impacts their psychological well-being and their willingness to help abuse survivors. Given the multitude of stresses medical students are exposed to, careful attention and attendance to the effect of abuse on their well-being may be warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Jinan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Usta
authors.forename: Sani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hlais
authors.forename: Hala Abou
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Farhat
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romani
authors.forename: Hiba
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bzeih
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Abdo
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003376:Counseling; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007861:Lebanon; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult