How problem gambling by a male partner contributes to intimate partner violence against women: a gendered perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper adopts a gendered perspective exploring how gambling by a male partner contributes to intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. Unstructured interviews with 30 women with lived experience of male partner violence linked to his gambling were analyzed using adaptive grounded theory. Gendered drivers of violence set the context for IPV experienced by these women. Their male partners held strict patriarchal views about gender roles, controlled decision-making, restricted the woman’s independence, and condoned using violence against women. Gambling by the male partner interacted with these gendered drivers to increase the frequency and severity of IPV. They prioritized their gambling above the family’s welfare, controlled household finances, and coerced the woman into providing money. Gambling created situations that increased IPV, including anger over losses, family stressors and conflicts, with violent backlash silencing the woman’s objections. Violence intensified as the gambling escalated, with short-term cycles of violence directly linked to gambling events. Women experienced financial, psychological, physical and sexual abuse, and patterns of coercive control that maintained a climate of fear. These findings reveal the centrality of gender inequality within intimate relationships as a foundation for IPV, which is then exacerbated by the perpetrator’s gambling.

KEYWORDS:

• Male partner violence
• problem gambling
• gambling disorder
• gender
• feminist

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all the participants in this study. We also acknowledge Annabel Taylor, Andrew Frost, Nancy Greer, Rebecca Jenkinson, Angela Rintoul, Julie Deblaquiere, Uma Jaktar, Jamie Lee, Alun Jackson, Erika Langham and Vijay Rawat for assisting with the interviews. We thank our research partners who helped to source research participants and provided general guidance for the study: Relationships Australia Queensland, Relationships Australia South Australia, Relationships Australia New South Wales, Relationships Australia Australian Capital Territory, Women’s Health in the North, Salvation Army Crossroads Family Violence Service, and Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service.

Funding sources

Direct: This material was produced with funding from the Australian Government and the Australian state and territory governments. Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from these governments, without which this work would not have been possible. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government.

Indirect: In-kind assistance for recruitment was received from these research partners -

Relationships Australia Queensland

Relationships Australia South Australia

Relationships Australia New South Wales

Relationships Australia Australian Capital Territory

Women’s Health in the North

Salvation Army Crossroads Family Violence Service

Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service

Constraints on publishing

No constraints on publishing were declared by the authors in relation to this manuscript.

Competing interests

No competing interests were declared by the authors in relation to this manuscript.

Preregistration statement

No preregistration was declared by the authors in relation to this manuscript.

Data availability statement

No data set was declared by the authors in relation to this manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nerilee Hing

Professor Nerilee Hing, PhD, is a Research Professor in the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory, School of Health, Medical and Applied Science at Central Queensland University Australia. Her research focuses on gambling behavior, problems and harm, impacts of gambling on vulnerable groups, and harm minimization and consumer protection in gambling.

Catherine O’Mullan

Dr Catherine O’Mullan, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Central Queensland University. She has a particular interest in applying a gender equity perspective to her research work in women’s health, sexual health and domestic violence.

Helen Breen

Dr Helen Breen, PhD, is an Adjunct and member of the Emeritus Faculty at Southern Cross University Australia. Her research includes a public health focus on harm minimization, consumer protection, social responsibility; gambling impacts for groups of Indigenous peoples, women, seniors and victims of family violence.

Elaine Nuske

Dr Elaine Nuske, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Southern Cross University, Australia. Her gambling research has focused on partners of problem gamblers, women, domestic violence, stigma and help seeking behavior of those experiencing gambling problems.

Lydia Mainey

Lydia Mainey is a Head of Course in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Sciences at Central Queensland University Australia. Her areas of research are domestic violence and trauma-informed practice, adult education and abortion care.