About this Research Topic
Violence has a devastating effect on physical and mental health. People exposed to violence develop numerous mental health issues and the phenomenon is omnipresent in societies, institutions, families, relationships, even self-perpetrated. Following increasing awareness of the impact of violence on mental health, it is timely to bring together latest research on the impact of violence on mental health.
Available research suggests that violence has a long-lasting effect on mental health of victims and is associated with a significant increase of certain disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. However, the mental health impact might differ between different groups depending on factors such as age. Furthermore, the specific characteristic of violence (e.g. duration, intention) might be critical do determine its impact. Finally, some additional categories (i.e. moral injury) could play a role and help us better understand the long term impact of violence on mental health. For these reasons, more research defining the exposure and investigating the impact of the exposure and is needed.
The goal of this Research Topic is to report on recent papers that investigate and understand the short and long-term impact of violence on mental health. The aim is to highlight the advances that have been made in this research area in recent years, and progress towards how best to assess the short and long term impact on different population groups. A special focus of the Research Topic is on methodological improvements in this area as the assessment of different types of violence still needs to be further developed.
We welcome articles focused (but not restricted to) the following subtopics:
• Impact of global wars, civil wars and genocide on mental health of civilians
• Impact of community violence including racism on mental health
• Impact of domestic violence on mental health
• Impact of trafficking on mental health
• Impact of child abuse on mental health
• Impact of elder abuse on mental health
• Improvement of assessment tools to detect different types of violence and their effects
• Mitigation of the long term effects of violence on victims
• Impact of violence on mental health of perpetrators
• Intervention models to mitigate the effects of violence at the population and individual level
• Gender differences in the impact of violence on mental health
Available research suggests that violence has a long-lasting effect on mental health of victims and is associated with a significant increase of certain disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. However, the mental health impact might differ between different groups depending on factors such as age. Furthermore, the specific characteristic of violence (e.g. duration, intention) might be critical do determine its impact. Finally, some additional categories (i.e. moral injury) could play a role and help us better understand the long term impact of violence on mental health. For these reasons, more research defining the exposure and investigating the impact of the exposure and is needed.
The goal of this Research Topic is to report on recent papers that investigate and understand the short and long-term impact of violence on mental health. The aim is to highlight the advances that have been made in this research area in recent years, and progress towards how best to assess the short and long term impact on different population groups. A special focus of the Research Topic is on methodological improvements in this area as the assessment of different types of violence still needs to be further developed.
We welcome articles focused (but not restricted to) the following subtopics:
• Impact of global wars, civil wars and genocide on mental health of civilians
• Impact of community violence including racism on mental health
• Impact of domestic violence on mental health
• Impact of trafficking on mental health
• Impact of child abuse on mental health
• Impact of elder abuse on mental health
• Improvement of assessment tools to detect different types of violence and their effects
• Mitigation of the long term effects of violence on victims
• Impact of violence on mental health of perpetrators
• Intervention models to mitigate the effects of violence at the population and individual level
• Gender differences in the impact of violence on mental health
Keywords: violence, mental health, gender differences, abuse
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
