Intimate Partner Violence Polyvictimization and Female Survivors' Help-Seeking: Variations By Race/Ethnicity

Background:

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a serious public health problem, as it not only negatively affects the survivor’s physical health, but may also result in life-long trauma and disadvantages. Seeking help from various sources is critically important to reduce such negative consequences. The literature, however, suggests that many survivors, especially racial/ethnic minorities, do not seek help, or experience various barriers to certain sources of help. Survivors’ help-seeking seems to be also associated with the nature of IPV they experienced; the more serious their experiences, the more likely to seek help. Furthermore, many survivors experience more than one type of IPV, or polyvictimization (e.g., physical violence along with psychological abuse, sexual violence along with stalking), potentially affecting survivors’ help-seeking. This study examines this interconnected relationship among IPV polyvictimization experiences, seeking help from various help sources, and survivors’ race/ethnicity.

Method:

We used the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey collected in 2010. The study sample included 4,764 female survivors who reported 8,602 perpetrators (197 female, 8,403 male, two unknown gender). We first conducted a latent class analysis (LCA) to classify IPV polyvictimization based on seven IPV types: psychological aggression, coercive control, less severe physical violence, severe physical violence, rape, non-rape sexual assaults, and stalking. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between IPV polyvictimization and help-seeking (police, doctor, and psychologist), controlling for survivors’ gender, sexual orientation, age, income, education, and safety concern after victimization. Interaction terms between race/ethnicity and polyvictimization were tested for moderating effects of race/ethnicity.

Result:

The sample consisted of 68.2% Caucasian, 14.1% Black, 12.1% Hispanic, and 5.6% Other Races. LCA revealed three polyvictimization patterns: (1) Multiple Violence (MV), victimized by most types of IPV (13.6%), (2) Physical and Psychological Violence (PPV, 24.5%), (3) Psychological Violence (PV, 61.9%). Psychologists were contacted the most (25.2%), followed by police (18.3%) and doctors (10.4%). Compared to survivors of PV, survivors of MV and PPV were more likely to seek all types of help. Black survivors were more likely to contact police than White survivors. Compared to White survivors, Black and Hispanic survivors were less likely to see psychologists. Survivors who were foreign-born or with less than high school education were less likely to see psychologists. Compared to White survivors who experienced MV, Black survivors of MV were less likely to talk to police, while Other Race survivors of MV were more likely to talk to police.

Conclusion:

A severe form of polyvictimization (e.g., severe physical violence, sexual assaults) was associated with greater needs for professional help. Race/ethnicity seems to influence the survivor’s decision to seek help and selection of a type of help source to be utilized. Racial/ethnic minority survivors’ seemingly complicated relationship with police and less use of psychological counseling need to be further examined by future research. Law enforcement and mental health service providers need to improve racial/ethnic minority survivors’ access to their services and strengthen their cultural sensitivity to the experiences and cultural contexts brought in by a variety of survivors.