Timelines of psychological, physical and sexual intimate partner violence among a nationally representative sample of Australian women.

Abstract

Background: Violent and abusive behavior in relationships causes immense individual and community harm. Mapping the emergence of different types of abuse over time and recognising behavioral patterns, could enable more targeted intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention, screening, and early intervention. While there has been some qualitative research into early warning signs of abuse and escalating homicide risks in relationships, no known studies have asked a large sample of survivors to document the sequence of abusive behaviors in a recent relationship.

Objectives: To explore timelines of psychologically, physically, and sexually abusive behaviors and life events in a recent relationship (during the last 5 years) to create a macro timeline of abuse.

Design: Cross sectional survey of a nationally representative sample (gender, age, state, locality).

Data sources and methods: Eight hundred and fifteen Australian IPV women survivors.

Results: Results indicated that psychological abuse was a feature of most violent relationships, and almost always underpinned physical and sexual abuse. Psychological abuse often began before couples moved in together, while physical and sexual abuse came later. The earliest indicators for survivors that something was wrong was being isolated from others and feeling controlled by their partner. For many survivors, growing concern about the impact of abuse on their children occurred around the same time as leaving their relationship and trying to get help.

Conclusion: Findings indicate a pattern of escalating behaviors over the course of a relationship that are consistent with the concept of coercive control. The macro timeline contains important learnings for intervening early with future survivors.