What Predicts Sexual Intimate Partner Violence Victimization across Relationships Among Young Women from University, Two-Year College, and High-Risk Community Settings?

Background and Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) peaks during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Though debate continues on the extent to which young women and men experience similar rates of physical IPV, it is clear that sexual IPV—especially rape—is much more prevalent among young women. In fact, approximately half of all sexual assaults against young women are perpetrated by male partners. Forms of IPV victimization are likely to co-occur, with combined sexual and physical IPV linked to greater abuse severity; only a few studies have explored coercive control among young women. Researchers have found that socioeconomic status (SES) and young women’s age are inversely related to IPV victimization, while age difference with a male partner and relationship length are positively associated, though sexual IPV in relation to these factors has been relatively unexplored. Thus, the goal of this paper is to examine these variables, along with physical IPV and coercive control, as predictors of sexual IPV across relationships during adolescence and emerging adulthood, within a sample of young women from university, two-year college, and high-risk community settings.

Method: Participants (N = 148; ages 18-24; 39% African American, 39% White, 10% Latina, 7% biracial, 5% Asian American; 57% received public assistance during childhood) who had experienced IPV were recruited from a university (n = 50), a two-year college (n = 48), and community sites serving high-risk youth (n = 50) and interviewed about their IPV victimization (physical, coercive control, and sexual) within each of their relationships (up to four, 388 total). We used the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale to assess physical IPV, the Brief Coercion Scale to measure coercive control, and six items adapted from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey to assess sexual IPV (rape and attempted rape). We used multilevel modeling to estimate the between-persons and within-person effects of SES, participant age, partner age difference, relationship length, physical IPV, coercive control, and site on sexual IPV during the first relationship and over relationships 1-4.

Results: First relationships began when participants were 14 years old and lasted 21 months, on average; physical IPV occurred in 46% of all relationships, coercive control in 54%, and sexual IPV in 31%. In the unconditional model, sexual IPV remained stable over relationships 1-4. Our model was improved by adding SES, age, age difference, relationship length, physical IPV, coercive control, and site as predictors. Sexual IPV during the first relationship was inversely associated with SES, age, and site, and positively associated with physical IPV and coercive control. Overall, the trajectory of sexual IPV across relationships 1-4 was stable, though there were site differences; age difference, physical IPV, and coercive control positively co-varied with sexual IPV across relationships 1-4.

Conclusion: Given that male partners commit approximately half of all sexual assaults experienced by young women, sexual violence prevention and intervention efforts must incorporate a sexual IPV focus to be effective.