Intimate Partner Violence Among Transitional-Aged Women With and Without Disabilities: Implications for Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT

Although women with disabilities are at increased risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), little is known about how this phenomenon impacts transitional-aged young women with disabilities who are still trying to master the developmental challenges of adolescence. This study explores risk factors for and prevalence of IPV by drawing on a population-based sample of women ages 18–21 with (N = 1,616,207) and without (N = 7,554,064) self-reported disabilities. Findings suggest that risk factors for IPV were more prevalent among sample members, as was past year experience of IPV. This study has implications for school social workers and disability service providers who interact with this population.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• handicapped
• intimate partner violence
• young adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

This study utilized publically-accessible, de-identified secondary data, so informed consent was not conducted by the study authors as they did not gather the data.