Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Intimate partner violence and women’s depression before and during pregnancy
Other Titles:	Violence against women
Authors:	Kupper, Lawrence L Cloutier, Suzanne Martin, Sandra L Li, Yun Casanueva, Cecilia Harris-Britt, April
Keywords:	Mental health;Psychological abuse;Sexual assault;Early intervention;Screening;Pregnancy;Prevention
Categories:	Victims / Survivors
Year:	2006
Publisher:	Sage Publications
Citation:	12 (3), March 2006
Notes:	This US paper refers to literature on physical and sexual assault on women by their intimate partners, identifying victimisation as most likely when women are of reproductive age. It referred to studies and surveys that provided statistics on violent victimisation of women before and during their pregnancy and suggests that intimate partner violence can result in women’s health problems (including mental health problems like depression). This study examined the effect intimate partner violence had on depressive symptoms of 95 prenatal care patients. Participants were administered a structured research interview and information was gathered on the women’s depressive symptoms, experiences of intimate partner violence and socio-demographic details. Associations between women’s experiences of several forms of intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms (both before and during pregnancy) were examined. Two research questions were posed: (1) Do women who have experienced particular types of intimate partner violence (psychological aggression, physical assault, sexual coercion and violence-related injures) have higher levels of depressive symptoms, both before pregnancy and during pregnancy, than women who have not experienced such violence? (2) Among women victimised by intimate partner violence (before and/or during pregnancy), are the depressed women more likely to have experienced more frequent violence compared to the non-depressed women? Findings indicated that 41% of the women in this study had clinically relevant levels of depressive symptoms during the year before pregnancy and nearly three quarters of the women had similarly high depression levels during pregnancy. The women who were victims of psychological aggression during the year before pregnancy were not at elevated risk for depression except when the psychological aggression was very frequent. During pregnancy, psychological aggression related to women’s depression levels regardless of the frequency of the aggression. Women who experienced any level of physical assault or sexual coercion by their intimate partner (before or during pregnancy) had higher levels of depressive symptoms than non-victims. More than half of the women in the study experienced multiple forms of violence and injuries from their intimate partner (even during pregnancy), with findings of higher levels of depressive symptoms for this group. Limitations of the study were discussed (e.g. research was based solely on women’s interview responses; and the likelihood of reporting biases due to the nature of the topic). The importance of routine screening in services providing women’s health care, domestic violence programmes, mental health specialists and emergency personnel was presented.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/15418
ISSN:	1077-8012
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

Items in ANROWS library are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.