Psychopathology and Coping in Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: Associations with Race and Abuse Severity

ABSTRACT

The present study examined how race and abuse severity independently and interactively predicted psychopathology and coping in a sample of 206 African-American and White survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Women reported on their exposure to physical violence, their psychological symptoms, and their coping behaviors. White women reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression than African-American women. More severe abuse was generally related to more psychological symptoms and to greater denial. Interactions between race and abuse severity indicated that African-Americans reported fewer psychological symptoms than Whites at lower levels of abuse but not when abuse was very severe. African-Americans reported more coping-related substance use than Whites at the highest level of abuse severity. The implications of the findings for future research and for treatment of IPV survivors are considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Abuse severity
• coping
• intimate partner violence
• psychopathology
• race

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the women in shelters who agreed to participate in this study. Although they were at an extremely challenging point in their lives, they understood the importance of research and we deeply admire their willingness to engage with us in the hope that it would help others in their situation.

Disclosure of Interest

All authors of this study 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 [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.