Intimate Partner Violence and Suicidality Among Women: How Is the Connection Measured?

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) and suicide are both devastating and preventable public health crises, each affecting millions of individuals, families, and communities. Despite the robust literature linking IPV and suicidality among women through empirical correlations and theoretical connections, few researchers make intentional efforts to connect the occurrence of IPV with suicidality via measurement. In most inquiries, these phenomenon are measured separately. As such, the true nature of the association is not well-established and connections between IPV and suicidality are made via statistical tests rather than through how suicidality is measured among survivors of IPV.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess whether women reported suicidality as a result of the IPV they experienced. Women in this study were also asked about suicidality as a result of their experiences of childhood maltreatment. Finally, the relation between sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, length of relationship), measures of IPV (e.g., physical, psychological, stalking), and measures of well-being (e.g., depressive symptoms, PTSD, resilience, empowerment) and women’s reports of suicidality due to IPV were examined.

Methods: This study utilized data from a two-year study of women who experienced IPV and received civil legal services (N=150). Women reported whether they had any suicidal thoughts, made suicidal gestures, developed a plan for suicide, or attempted suicide as a result of the IPV and/or any childhood abuse they experienced. Other measures included sociodemographic characteristics, standardized scales to assess various forms of IPV, and standardized measures of well-being. Analyses were performed using three groups for comparison (no suicidality, lifetime-only suicidality, both past year and lifetime suicidality). One-way analysis of variance with post-hoc comparisons was used to examine group mean differences for continuous variables. Chi-square analyses were used with categorical variables.

Results: Over half of the sample reported no history of suicidality (n=83; 55.33%) and 67 women (44.67%) reported any suicidality as a result of IPV. Of the women who reported any suicidality due to IPV, 32 (21.33%) reported suicidality in the past year. Exactly half (n=75) of the sample reported a history of child maltreatment. Of those, 44 (58.67%) reported suicidal thoughts as a result of any abuse or neglect they experienced. The mean value of physical IPV was significantly different between women who reported both lifetime and past year suicidality and women who reported no suicidality (M=55.34 vs 44.35, respectively; p=.027). The mean value for measures of well-being were significantly different between women who reported lifetime and past year suicidality and women who reported no suicidality. Women who reported suicidality reported more depressive and PTSD symptoms and less resilience and empowerment.

Conclusion: Women who experience IPV often report higher rates of suicidality but these two concepts are rarely measured in ways that allow us to explicitly attribute suicidality as a cause of IPV victimization. It is important that researchers attempt to provide a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between IPV and suicidality. Focusing on suicidality as a result of IPV has implications for interventions, as these are arguably different than intervention efforts among other populations.