The Role of Help-Seeking Behaviors in the Relationships between Child Maltreatment, Intimate Partner Violence, and Depression Among College Students

Background and Purpose: The cycle of violence theory purports that children who suffer from child maltreatment (CM) are not only more likely to experience subsequent intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, but are also more likely to develop long-term emotional harm, such as depression. Empirical studies indicate that help-seeking is a critical behavioral process to meet their needs directly after IPV victimization as well as to get a sense of the availability of help, which is known to be particularly beneficial in decreasing depressive symptoms. However, most previous studies examine help-seeking behaviors in relation to IPV victimization and depression without taking CM into account. This study fills this research gap by examining how help-seeking behaviors play a role in the links between CM, IPV victimization, and depression.

Methods: The analytic sample is 576 college students, drawn from a cross-sectional survey at seven universities in the U.S. and Canada, conducted in 2016. CM is measured by two types, such as abuse and neglect, by asking six items based on the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire. IPV victimization is measured by 12 items, including threats, physical, psychological, sexual, and technological violence, from the Partner Victimization Scale, Southworth et al. (2007) and Ansara & Hindin (2010). Depression is measured by 20 items using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Help-seeking behaviors consist of three types, including formal, informal, and overall help-seeking, by asking if they have talked about any oftheIPV victimization incidents with any agencies or persons. Control variables include age, gender, and race/ethnicity. The Jamovi 2.3.28 and Medmod module in Jamovi are utilized for analyses.

Results: Results from mediation models show that CM is positively associated with IPV victimization, which in turn, increases depression among college students. Results from moderated mediation models reveal that the effect sizes of path linkingCM, IPV victimization, and depression decrease when formal and overall help-seeking increase, respectively. Conversely, the effect size of path linking CM, IPV victimization, and depression increases when informal help-seeking increases.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest the importance of connecting survivors of CM and IPV victimization to formal help resources to mitigate their impacts on depression among college students. Practitioners are encouraged to consider the underlying mechanisms of informal help-seeking resources as a risk factor among college student survivors of CM and IPV victimization with depression.