Assessing Intimate Partner Violence Via Daily Diary Surveys: Feasibility, Reporting, and Acceptability

Abstract

Despite a growing number of research studies using experience sampling methodologies, little is known about feasibility of these methodologies to the study of intimate partner violence (IPV). In the current study, we examine (a) participant retention and completeness in a 3-week daily diary study, (b) the discrepancy between daily dairy reports of IPV and retrospective summary reports of IPV, and (c) participant reactions to a daily diary assessment of IPV experiences. Participants were 923 undergraduate students (primarily White, heterosexual, and middle to upper-middle class) at two medium-sized universities in New England and the Midwest who received course credit for completing daily diary surveys for 3 weeks about past 24-hour IPV experiences. At the end of the survey, participants summarized their IPV experiences across the 3-week period and answered questions about their reactions to participating in the research protocol. Of the students who completed the baseline survey, 460 (49.8%) were retained until the last day and 229 (24.8%) completed all 21 days. Participants reported higher incidence and frequency of IPV in the daily diaries compared with the retrospective summary measure. On average, participants reported low levels of negative reactions to research participation (e.g., increased fear of partner) and moderate levels of positive reactions to research participation (e.g., gaining insight). IPV victimization before the study, and IPV perpetration and victimization during the daily diary period, predicted negative reactions to research participation reported at the final assessment, whereas IPV perpetration during the daily diary period predicted positive reactions. Overall, findings suggest that although retention is challenging, daily diaries studies may improve accuracy of IPV reporting, and that participants have few negative responses to daily diary methodologies inquiring about IPV.

Daily and situational reports of substance use and dating violence among college students: A 10-week prospective study

“…Possible memory confounds were reduced with this study’s prospective, 10-week design. The present study replicated and extended past research using a relatively long assessment period (i.e., 70 days) versus 14 days ( Sheehan & Lau-Barraco, 2018 ), 21 days ( Waterman et al, 2019 ), 56 days ( Derrick et al, 2014 ), or 60 days ( Moore et al, 2011 ) allowing for more opportunity to examine how substance use and dating violence are associated over a longer assessment with a relatively low rate of attrition (i.e., 80% compliance rate). Given that participants effectively served as their own controls across time, the design helped to rule out explanations for the association between substance use and dating violence that are based on third variable explanations such as personality characteristics that increase the probability for both of these problematic behaviors.…”

“…In order to minimize subject response burden while assessing frequently-endorsed forms of dating violence, as in other daily assessment studies (e.g., Derrick et al, 2014 , Waterman et al, 2019 ), the daily reports used a reduced item set. The Injury subscale was removed.…”

“…Although many studies have documented a significant association between substance use and dating violence, the vast majority have asked participants to report on aggression and substance use, retrospectively, over extended periods (e.g., 6–12 months). Such retrospective reports appear to underestimate both alcohol use (e.g., Krenek et al, 2016 , Patrick and Lee, 2010 ) and dating violence (e.g., Moore et al, 2011 , Neal and Edwards, 2019 , Waterman et al, 2019 ). In contrast, the extent to which dating violence and substance use co-occur temporally has received relatively little attention.…”

“…In a study comparing the feasibility of different experience sampling methods, Waterman et al (2019) compared a weekly daily diary assessment with a retrospective assessment of intimate partner violence. They found that participants reported a greater amount of intimate partner violence using daily diaries than retrospective reports.…”

“…They found that participants reported a greater amount of intimate partner violence using daily diaries than retrospective reports. These researchers concluded that daily diary violence research appears to be more accurate than longer, retrospective reports ( Waterman et al, 2019 ). However, their data collection was limited to 3 weeks, and they did not consider the associations with substances other than alcohol.…”