PTSD & Intimate Partner Violence: A National Sample

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The aim of this proposed study is to examine risk and protective factors associated with current posttraumatic stress symptoms among a nationally representative sample of adult women (n = 397) currently living with an intimate partner who reportedly sexually assaulted, physically assaulted, stalked, and/or threatened them at some point during the course of the relationship. The unique characteristics of intimate partner violence (Gordon, 2000) render this study especially important. The proposed study is based on a secondary analysis of data drawn from a nationally representative sample used in the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) survey (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). In the proposed study, risk and protective factors were identified using a nested ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1986) adopted to explain battered women's experience (Dutton, 1996), which takes into account the context of the traumatic event, and the way in which the event is perceived (Giel, 1998). We predict differences in current post-traumatic stress symptoms ( IES-R; Weiss & Marmar, 1997), depression, alcohol and substance abuse, and general health by 1) type of "index" partner IPV (sexual assault, physical assault, stalking, threats), 2) intensity of "index" partner IPV (severity, injury, threat of serious harm or death, weapon use, subjective threat appraisal, recency, duration, frequency) 3) respondents' threat appraisal of ongoing violence-related risk, 4) respondents' prior history of childhood and adulthood violence victimization, 5) respondents' efforts to leave the "index" relationship, and 6) respondents' prior community-system involvement (medical care, mental health care, criminal justice, protection order) related to their experience with IPV. Measures of lPV utilized in the NVAW capture a full range and patterning of intimate partner violence recommended by (Gordon, 2000). Multivariate statistical modeling is used to test predicted relationships.