Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Violence in Pregnant Women

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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health concern in the United States and has been shown to be highly prevalent during pregnancy, particularly for couples of low socioeconomic status. IPV poses an especially serious problem for pregnant women as it puts both mother and unborn child at risk for severe physical harm, including death. This application proposes an investigation of potential risk factors for IPV in pregnancy, such as alcohol use, stress, infidelity, jealousy, and relationship discord, from both a cross- sectional and longitudinal perspective. The overarching theoretical frameork for this study is based on Leonard's conceptual model of substance use and intimate partner violence. This theory proposes that proximal (immediate situational issues such as intoxication) and distal (ongoing, pervasive problems such as relationship dissatisfaction) factors in an overall negative context (such as low socioeconomic status or difficult pregnancy) will precipitate relationship violence. In the proposed study, it is argued that stressors associated with pregnancy in combination with external stressors such as low socioeconomic status creates tenuous circumstances that in the presence of alcohol, predispose couples to physical aggression. Additionally, evolutionary theory as discussed by Buss & Duntley's evolved homicide theory and Harris' social-cognitive theory is used to explain the particular risks to violence that pregnant women may face. This theory suggests that the'violence perpetrated against expectant women is either a) a symptom of the perpetrator's innate desire to protect his reproductive status or b) a product of relational jealousy of the unborn child in which the male partner feels his security in the romantic relationship is threatened by the transition from dyad to triad. While Leonard's conceptual model has been supported in common couples and batterer populations, neither model has been tested in expectant individuals. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation explicitly examining factors that may put pregnant women at increased risk for experiencing intimate partner violence. Expectant women (n=200) attending any one of several sites of a public health clinic system will be invited to participate in order to investigate 1) the extent to which alcohol use, stress, infidelity, jealousy, and relationship dissatisfaction predict intimate partner violence in this sample, and 2) to evaluate the potential moderating effects of alcohol use on the relationships between jealousy and intimate partner violence and stress and intimate partner violence.