Session: Structural Conditions Affecting Mental Health for Diverse Populations Following Intimate Partner Violence Victimization (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization is a pervasive public health problem disproportionately impacting women and sexual and gender minoritized (SGM) individuals, especially those from racial/ethnic diverse backgrounds or holding other marginalized identities. IPV victimization has long-term mental health consequences including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and suicide-related outcomes though limited work has focused on these consequences across diverse populations. Research characterizing individual-level mechanisms by which IPV impacts women’s mental health (e.g., trauma history; IPV chronicity) has provided targeted information for how to intervene to improve well-being. Yet, people are embedded in marginalizing social structures, like discrimination, housing instability, and other social determinants of health (SDOH), that fundamentally shape the mental health consequences of IPV according to social identity and location. However, scant work has characterized the role of SDOHs on mental health following IPV across diverse populations. Further limitations of this research include exclusion of SGM and non-English speaking individuals, and cross-sectional designs. Identification of SDOHs that contribute to negative mental health in IPV across diverse groups of individuals may increase understanding of how structural issues impact individual well-being and thus inform the development of more effective interventions that address factors across multiple levels of the social ecology. This symposium provides an overview of the SDOH of mental health in IPV victimization, and addresses identified limitations in three distinct empirical studies.

Paper 1 provides a foundation for discussion by synthesizing knowledge of IPV risk and protection and the relationship between IPV and mental health using a socio-ecological model as an organizing framework. Results from this umbrella (review of reviews) narrative review of the interdisciplinary research on IPV risk/protection and links to mental health point to gaps in the extant literature some of which are addressed in the other three papers in this symposium.

Paper 2 extends our knowledge of mental health consequences of IPV victimization for racially minoritized women by examining the influential role of cultural values in mental health. Results indicate the negative impact of the cultural value of fatalism on anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Paper 3 contributes to our knowledge of depressive symptoms among mothers who have experienced IPV using eight-year longitudinal data. Specifically, this study tracks the trajectory of and structural risk factors for depressive symptoms over time in this population. Study findings are that SDOHs, including housing instability and discrimination, exacerbate depressive symptoms over time in women with IPV victimization.

Paper 4 uses a nationally representative sample of women and transgender/non-binary emerging adults to examine the moderating effects of perceived discrimination in the relationship between IPV and mental health symptoms (i.e., suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, depression, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI)). Findings are that IPV is associated with increased odds for suicide-related outcomes and discrimination adds significantly to the risk for suicidal ideation and NSSI.

The symposium will include a discussion of how to address identified SDOHs in intervention and the future of IPV-related mental health treatment prioritizing structural-level factors. Additionally, presenters will discuss future directions for research to inform such interventions, considering the findings across studies.