Impact of Gender-Based Aggression on Women’s Mental Health in Portugal

Abstract

Violence against women is a significant public health problem that has both shortand long-term physical and mental health consequences for women and their families (World Health Organization [WHO], 2013). Sexual violence is a pervasive, yet, until recently, largely ignored violation of women's human rights in most countries. The United Nations define violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life" and identify tiie same characteristics and consequences for such behavior by an intimate partner or ex-partner (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)