Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global health issue that has been defined as “physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression by a current or former intimate partner” [1]. It can be perpetrated by individuals of any gender against partners of any gender, but the most common pattern is for men to commit IPV against their female partners [1]. Nearly 30% of women aged 15 and above have experienced different forms of IPV in their lifetime [2]. In the United States, 24.6% of women have experienced sexual violence, 22.3% have faced severe physical violence, and 9.2% have experienced stalking from their intimate partners throughout their lifetime [1]. IPV has detrimental effects on victims’ physical and mental health and can even lead to death [3-6].

China is a country deeply influenced by patriarchy. Throughout its millennia of history, Chinese women have been oppressed, enslaved, sold, and even lynched by men. The “three obediences and four virtues” of Chinese Confucianism serve as a framework for social behavior and stand as stark evidence of their suffering [7]. Historically, Chinese women have been subjected to violence at the hands of men. It was only in contemporary China (i.e., the period from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the present day) that the terms and concepts of gender equality and domestic violence began to emerge in Chinese society. In the early years of this era, Mao Zedong’s political slogan proclaiming that “women hold up half the sky” inspired women’s awareness of equality, at least to some extent. Since the 1980s, China’s reform and opening-up policy has exposed the Chinese people to the outside world, and the introduction of Western ideas, such as feminism, has further strengthened women’s self-awareness. The term “domestic violence” started to appear in public discourse, with research on the topic beginning to emerge. The first publication to mention “domestic violence” or “family violence” in China appeared in 1987 [8]. Since then, research has focused on the issue of family violence in China, gradually revealing the true extent of IPV within Chinese society. Studies indicate that IPV from men to women in Chinese society is highly prevalent. A nationally representative survey reported that approximately 34% of Chinese women had experienced physical violence in their current relationship, with 12% of these incidents resulting in some form of injury [9]. A review of studies conducted between 1987 and 2006 found that the prevalence of women experiencing IPV ranged from 3.6% to 64.8%, with a pooled average of 19.7% for any type of violence [10]. The rates for psychological, physical, and sexual violence were 42.6%, 14.2%, and 9.8%, respectively [10]. These percentages are likely underestimated due to the social norm of not airing one’s dirty laundry in public, which may cause some individuals to be reluctant to report their experiences of IPV [11].

Among victims of IPV, pregnant women represent a particularly vulnerable group. Studies in China have reported that the prevalence of IPV during pregnancy ranges from 2.5% to 11.6%, with a combined average of 7.7% [12]. This figure accounts for more than one-third of all male-to-female violence. The consequences of IPV for pregnant women are often more severe than for the general population. Violence can directly cause physical harm to both the pregnant woman and the fetus [13] and may lead to a range of obstetric complications, such as antepartum hemorrhage, preterm birth, and even fetal or maternal death [14-16]. Furthermore, IPV during the psychologically vulnerable period of pregnancy can inflict serious psychological trauma, potentially resulting in emotional issues like stress, anxiety, and depression [17]. Maternal mental health problems can subsequently lead to difficulties in parenting, including poor maternal-infant bonding, breastfeeding avoidance, child neglect and abuse, and can have a harmful impact on the long-term growth and development of children [18-21].

In countries such as China, the issue of IPV is deeply entrenched in patriarchal social traditions. Additionally, the development of relevant policies is complicated by the country’s large population and diverse demographic makeup. Nevertheless, IPV during pregnancy must be addressed urgently. However, only one review has summarized the prevalence of IPV during pregnancy in China [12]. No comprehensive investigation has been conducted to summarize the body of research on this topic. Therefore, this scoping review explored the scope and status of research on IPV during pregnancy in China by identifying and summarizing relevant literature. The review specifically aimed to summarize the general characteristics, research methods, and content of the literature on IPV against pregnant women in contemporary China.

From an initial pool of 547 search results, 87 articles were identified as duplicates and an additional 424 articles were excluded for not meeting the inclusion criteria. Upon full-text review of the remaining 36 articles, two were excluded because the research was not conducted in China, and six were excluded as repeat publications. Thus, 28 articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected. Nine additional articles were identified by manually searching the CNKI, reviewing the references of the aforementioned 28 articles, and examining the articles cited in other relevant reviews [8,10,12]. Thus, a total of 37 articles [25-61] were included in this review. These 37 articles (26 in English and nine in Chinese) represent a total of 30 distinct studies because some studies were reported in multiple articles. The article selection process is depicted in Figure 1.

Our analysis of research on IPV during pregnancy in China revealed that researchers in Hong Kong have devoted more attention to this issue, while research in mainland China remains at a relatively nascent stage. There is an established research team at the University of Hong Kong. Since the publication of the first article on the prevalence of IPV during pregnancy in Hong Kong in 1999 [40], subsequent studies have investigated the prevalence and nature of violence [26,31,34,36,37], explored risk factors associated with IPV during pregnancy [26,28,30,31,33,34], examined its adverse consequences [25,27,29,32,35,36,38,39,41], and sought solutions [42]. Since the dynamics of IPV in Chinese society may differ from those in Western societies, Hong Kong researchers have adapted the AAS, a commonly used violence measurement tool, to reflect conditions in China and have tested its reliability [43]. In contrast, research within mainland China has been geographically limited to a few areas, such as Hunan, Guangdong, and Tianjin City. Furthermore, while most articles by researchers in Hong Kong were published in English in well-known international journals, approximately half of the articles from mainland China were published in Chinese in domestic journals [48,53,55-61]. Additionally, some studies from mainland China [44,50,54,56-61] utilized researcher-designed questionnaires without providing information on the reliability and validity of their measurements, casting doubt on the survey results. Consequently, there is a need for more research employing standardized measurements to accurately represent the status of IPV during pregnancy in mainland China.