Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Survivors' Health: Moderating Effects of Race/Ethnicity

Overview: This study used the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey to conduct a latent class analysis to classify multiple intimate partner violence victimization experiences and a structural equation modeling that examined the moderating effects of race between victimization and long-term health outcomes.Proposal text:

Background:
Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) suffer from numerous health problems, even long after victimization incidents. The literature demonstrates that the more frequent and severe IPV is, the worse survivors’ health is. However, previous studies are often limited by focusing on a single perpetrator (e.g., the most recent intimate partner), overlooking potentially cumulative effects of multiple victimization by multiple perpetrators and/or multiple types of IPV (e.g., physical violence by one perpetrator, and both psychological and sexual assaults by another perpetrator). Furthermore, racial/ethnic health disparities in the realm of IPV remain understudied. The current study fills this gap by using recent national data to examine the long-term health outcomes of various different patterns of IPV victimization, with a particular emphasis on the moderation effects of race/ethnicity.

Method:
We used the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey collected in 2010 in the U.S. The sample included 8,587 survivors. We conducted a latent class analysis to classify multiple IPV victimization experiences into six groups: Physical Violence; Psychological Aggression; Sexual Violence; Coercive Control; Physical and Psychological Violence; and Multiple Violence. A structural equation modeling examined the moderating effects of race (Caucasian as reference, African American, Hispanic, and Other Race) between IPV victimization and long-term health outcomes (headache, chronic pain, difficulty sleeping, and self-rated physical and mental health). Controlled were survivors’ gender, sexual orientation, age, income, education, and birthplace (US born vs. not).

Result:
Among 8,587 survivors, 68.4% were Caucasian, 13.1% African American, 12.8% Hispanic, and 5.7% Other Race. While African American survivors were more likely to have chronic pain than Caucasian survivors (b=0.45, p=0.019) in general, they were less like to have chronic pain when experiencing Psychological Aggression (b=-0.58, p=0.010), Sexual Violence (b=-0.39, p=0.046), and Multiple Violence (b=-0.35, p=0.038). Hispanic survivors who experienced Sexual Violence were less likely to report poor physical health (b=-0.59, p=0.006). Compared to Caucasian survivors, Other Race survivors were more likely to have headache when they experienced Physical and Psychological Violence (b=0.65, p=0.015) and Multiple Violence (b=0.65, p=0.003), and more likely to have difficulty sleeping when they experienced Multiple Violence (b=0.81, p= < 0.001). Survivors from Other Race were less likely to report poor mental health when experiencing Coercive Control (b=-0.52, p=0.042), and less likely to report poor mental health (b=-0.64, p=0.044) and chronic pain (b=-0.65, p=0.015) when experiencing Sexual Violence.

Conclusions and Implications:
The seemingly mixed results on the relationship between racial/ethnic minorities and health outcomes of IPV may suggest differential long-term effects of IPV across race/ethnicity, the mechanisms of which are not known and worth exploring by future research. It may be that racial/ethnic minorities report health conditions differently from Caucasian survivors if questions are framed in a way that does not represent their health experiences. This suggests that researchers and health practitioners need to develop and use culturally sensitive/inclusive measurements of health. By taking such elements into account, the helping professionals can better understand and assess survivors’ IPV experiences and needs, especially in treating long-term health issues resulting from IPV and coordinating appropriate services.