Does Separation or Divorce Make any Difference? An Interactional Perspective on Intimate Partner Violence with Focus on Marital Status

• NCJ Number: 239381
• Journal: Journal of Family Violence Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2012 Pages: 45-54
• Author(s): Solveig Karin Bo Vatnar; Stal Bjorkly
• Date Published: January 2012
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reports a study of the impact of marital status on interactional aspects of intimate partner violence (IPV).

Abstract

This article reports a study of the impact of marital status on interactional aspects of intimate partner violence (IPV) among help-seeking women. Are there differences among marital status groups concerning (a) other sociodemographic variables, (b) IPV categories, (c) interactional IPV variables, and (d) perception and interpretation of IPV? A representative sample of 157 women recruited from family counseling, the police, and shelters were interviewed. There was no significant sociodemographic difference among the marital status groups. There were no significant differences pertaining to IPV categories, neither for IPV severity, injury, duration, frequency, mortal danger, and regularity, nor for physical, psychological, or sexual IPV. However, multivariate logistic regression showed that post-separation women were significantly more likely to have (a) had longer duration since the last psychological and sexual IPV episode, (2) reported the physical IPV to be more predictable, and (3) used more active coping strategies against physical IPV. However, our research was not able to determine if perception and interpretation predict actual leaving behavior, or vice versa, or how the victim's subjective perception and interpretation of the IPV changes over time. (Published Abstract)