Reviewer's report
Title:Moving from frustration to questioning traditional gender norms: a
qualitative study on community understanding of intimate partner violence in
urban Tanzania
Version: 1Date:17 December 2010
Reviewer: Stephen Lawoko
Reviewer's report:
- Major Compulsory Revisions
1) The authors need to add an elaborate presentation of theories on causes and
consequences of violence against women in the introduction. This is especially
crucial as they discuss their findings in relation to one of these theories (i.e.
ecological model). This suddenly appears in the discussion without prior mention
in the background. Also, there are several theoretical models explaining violence
causation. Therefore the reason why they discuss their findings only in relation to
the ecological model is not clear. They either need to explain why they choose
this framework alone or discuss their findings in relation to the different
frameworks in general. The latter is preferred.
2) Another matter related to the above is that the authors assert that they intend
to “develop a model of the relationship between community members
understanding of intimate partner violence, their views on support of survivors
and solutions to prevention”. This is rather confusing as their findings in my view
confirm much of what is already reported in the literature and in theoretical
models including the ecological model. By both viewing their findings in relation
to current theories and developing a model, they risk overcrowding the paper
making it difficult to align the aims, results and consequent discussion. I suggest
they should be content with a more elaborate discussion of their results in
relation to theory. Development of a model would have been appreciated only if
the results provided new insights beyond what is already known.
3) There is previous work done on community perceptions on intimate partner
violence. This being a main theme in this paper, I feel the introduction does not
cover adequately the literature in that regard, thus giving the wrong impression
that such work is scarce.
- Minor Essential Revisions
4) The methods and results are easy to follow. On page 10 however, the authors
indicated that they used drawings and newspaper headlines etc. to trigger
discussions. Could this have biased the discussion towards a more sympathetic
view about violence? This may be added in the discussion as possible factors
affecting the results. Also, in general the authors have avoided a discussion of
general shortcomings of the methods used in this study.
5) As already mentioned, the discussion should focus on discussing the findings
in relation to theoretical models of IPV. Also, the fact that community members
on the one hand endorsed IPV but on the other expressed concerns about it
reveals a complex picture. This is not discussed in detail. Could it be a reflection
of society in transition? Or methodological design issues e.g. the methods used
sort of acted as an intervention naturally leading to sympathetic attitude as the
discussion progressed? The discussion may benefit from incorporation of
plausible explanations to this complex picture. Also, how does this complex
finding fit in the theoretical models of IPV causation and control?
- Discretionary Revisions
6) The first part of the title “from frustration to questioning traditional norms” I feel
reflects only positive the positive elements of the findings in this study, while
hiding some of the crucial evidence that IPV is still tolerated in the society. I
would prefer a more neutral title. Why the second part of the title on its own “A
qualitative study on community understanding of IPV in urban Tanzania” ?
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests