Is Perceived Need for Action Among Women in Violent Relationships Nonlinear and, If So, Why?

Abstract

Despite the prevalence and impact of partner violence, we understand little about women's action taking except that it seems an unpredictable, nonlinear process. This article determines the degree of nonlinearity in perceived need for help, legal action, or leaving among women in violent relationships. The participants included 143 women who experienced violence in the previous month, enrolled from six primary care clinics. Baseline surveys assessed background characteristics and factors which may affect perceived need for action. Multiple times series assessments of violence and need for action were collected daily for 8 weeks via telephone Interactive Voice Response. Measures of nonlinearity of violence, perceived need for help, legal action, and leaving were computed. Repeated measures ANOVA assessed differences across measures of nonlinearity. To identify factors contributing to nonlinearity, staged multiple regression assessed the relationship between nonlinearity measures and outcomes. Ninety-three women completed sufficient time series for nonlinearity assessment. Measures of nonlinearity were lower for need for legal action compared with needs for help and leaving. Regression analysis suggested that isolation, social networks, and lack of awareness contribute to nonlinearity. Women's perceived need for legal action and its level of nonlinearity were lowest compared with those of help seeking and leaving. Although its relative linearity suggests that the need for legal action may be the most predictable, its lower mean rating suggests that legal action is a low priority. Although need for help and leaving are of higher priorities, their nonlinearity suggests that intervention will not yield predictable results.

Complex Relationship Between Daily Partner Violence and Alcohol Use Among Violent Heterosexual Men

“…However, prior analysis found that there were few malefemale reporting differences and that these daily reports were relatively complete (Burge et al, 2019). Even so, imputation of missing daily data generally has little effect on nonlinearity (Katerndahl et al, 2017). Finally, the predominance of low-income Hispanics within the sample may limit the generalizability of the findings.…”

“…When the initial data points in the time series were insufficient to apply nstep (generally n < 4), the mode of the time series was inserted until the time series is long enough to use nstep. To assess the effects of data imputation of nonlinearity assessment, we previously compared nonlinearity measures using all data sets (with and without imputed values) against those using only complete, nonimputed data sets and those with less than 25% of data imputed (Katerndahl et al, 2017). Although measures of both Lempel-Ziv (LZ) complexity (a measure of the amount of information needed to describe the data) and approximate entropy (ApEn; a measure of lack of regularity) increased with increasing use of imputed data, the incremental increases were small for both measures.…”

“…Nonlinear phenomena are characterized by irregular trajectories, dynamic and variable relationships, and a disproportional response to interventions, leading to unexpected events and changing patterns. Men's violence against women is generally nonlinear (unpredictable; Katerndahl et al, 2010aKaterndahl et al, , 2014bKaterndahl et al, , 2017 and the degree of nonlinearity is important to women's health and mental health outcomes (Katerndahl et al, 2014a).…”

Modeling Women’s Need For Action in Violent Relationships

“…On average, the most frequent and severe violence occurred with random dynamics (Katerndahl et al, 2014a). Measures of nonlinearity have consistently indicated that IPV varies nonlinearly (Katerndahl et al, 2014a(Katerndahl et al, , 2017a. How does the dynamics of the violence translate into the dynamics of decision-making?…”

“…In fact, the degree of nonlinearity of each type of action seemed to be dependent upon a different source; while the nonlinearity of need-for-help was best explained by multiple, interdependent predictors and circular causality , the nonlinearity of need-for-legal-action was best understood via cusp catastrophe modeling (Katerndahl et al, 2017b). Nonlinearity of need-to-leave was best explained by its dependence upon the underlying nonlinear violence itself (Katerndahl et al, 2017a). Hence, partner violence and women's decisionmaking are complex, nonlinear phenomena embedded within a complex, nonlinear relationship.…”