Factors for Chronic Health Problems Among Intimate Partner Violence Survivors

Background: Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) suffer numerous health problems. The literature on IPV and health outcomes demonstrated that the more frequent and severe IPV is, the worse the survivors’ health is, and that demographic characteristics moderate this relationship. However, previous studies are limited due to small samples, focusing on a single perpetrator (e.g., measuring what happened with relation to the most recent intimate partner), and overlooking potentially cumulative effects of multiple victimization by multiple perpetrators and/or multiple types of IPV, that is polyvictimization (e.g., physical violence by one perpetrator, and both psychological and sexual assaults by another perpetrator). This study fills these gaps by using one of the largest and most recent national datasets and examining health outcomes across a variety of IPV victimization patterns.

Method: We used data from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey collected in 2015. Among survivors, we selected 960 individuals who had experienced IPV in the past 12 months. We first conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) to classify IPV polyvictimization based on five IPV types measured as binary variables (Yes/No): mild physical violence, severe physical violence, sexual assault, rape, and stalking. Logistic regression analyses were then conducted to examine the associations between IPV polyvictimization and health outcomes, including chronic pain, sleep disturbance, and recurrent headaches. All analyses incorporated survey weights to ensure that the findings are representative of the U.S. adult population.

Result: The LCA results identified four polyvictimization patterns: (1) Multiple Violence, characterized by exposure to most types of IPV (12.8% of all survivors); (2) Stalking (47.4%); (3) Physical Violence (16%); and (4) Sexual Assault and Stalking (23.8%). Approximately one-third of survivors reported chronic pain (32.5%), 30.6% reported frequent headaches, and 44.4% reported difficulty sleeping.

Recurrent headaches were positively associated with being female and experiencing Multiple Violence (vs. Stalking) and negatively associated with having education beyond a high school diploma. Chronic pain was associated with low income (less than $20,000 per year), experiencing Multiple Violence or Physical Violence, and older individuals. Sleep disturbance was positively associated with identifying as a sexual minority and older age while it was negatively associated with higher education and experiencing Physical Violence (compared to Stalking).

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings indicate that IPV survivors’ health is associated with patterns of polyvictimization, and that these associations vary across demographic groups. These findings signify the importance of social workers and health-care providers to assess the types of IPV polyvictimization, as well as the survivor’s demographic characteristics, as part of routine care. By taking such elements into account, the helping professionals can better identify survivors at elevated risk for health and mental health issues resulting from IPV and support more tailored service coordination. Moreover, building on the present study, future research should examine through what mechanisms the various IPV polyvictimization types shape the survivors’ health and mental health experiences.