It’s Not all or Nothing: Women’s Differential Use of Help-Seeking Strategies in Response to Intimate Partner Violence

Purpose

Although the intimate partner violence (IPV) help-seeking literature has expanded, limited research examines help-seeking patterns utilizing a broad range of strategies. We examined classes of help-seeking strategies using the Intimate Partner Violence Strategy Index, which includes 39 help-seeking strategies in six categories: formal (e.g., stayed in shelter, called a hotline) and informal networks (e.g., talked to family, friends), legal assistance (e.g., called police, filed charges), safety planning behaviors (e.g., hid money or keys), and resistance (e.g., fought back, ended the relationship) and placating (e.g., tried to keep things quiet, avoided him) tactics.

Methods

The sample included 150 women who experienced IPV and sought civil legal services. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify strategy use classes and examined differences in class membership by sociodemographics and IPV experiences.

Results

The LCA identified four classes: High Strategy Use (36% of the sample), Moderate Strategy Use-Resistance Focused (25%), Moderate Strategy Use-Placating Focused (25%), and Low Strategy Use (14%). Women in the High Strategy Use class used an average of 27.35 strategies across all six categories. Women in each Moderate Use class reported high strategy use in one category (i.e., resistance or placating). Women in the Low Strategy Use class used an average of 11.67 strategies with very few safety planning strategies. Class membership was not associated with sociodemographic variables. Women in the High Use Strategy class reported the most frequent and severe IPV.

Conclusions

Examining help-seeking patterns provides comprehensive views of how women cope with violence and can yield tailored interventions.