Factors Related to Intimate Partner Violence and Survivors’ Help-Seeking among College Students in South Korea

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among college students is an ongoing, serious social problem in South Korea (Korea). Despite its high prevalence, little attention has been paid to this issue. This study fills a gap in the existing literature by collecting data from six universities in Korea to examine factors associated with IPV and with survivors’ help-seeking behaviors. Independent variables included IPV consequences, childhood victimization (CV), depression, and alcohol consumption; the two dependent variables were IPV victimization and help-seeking. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted. IPV was found to occur in every student group in college. Students suffering the psychological consequences of IPV sought help less often than those who did not, and CV increased the risk of IPV. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Intimate partner violence
• domestic violence
• college students
• help-seeking
• Korea
• childhood victimization
• mental health

Disclosure of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation at all participating universities and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.