Social Reactions to Intimate Partner Violence Disclosure Among Low-Income, Ethnically Diverse Community Women

Abstract

Friends and family members' reactions to intimate partner violence (IPV) disclosure play an important role in social support because disclosure often precedes requests for support. Perceptions of social reactions to IPV disclosure are likely to vary by context. Yet, research is limited on the role of ethnicity and severity of physical violence in perceptions of social reactions. We examined perceptions of social reactions to IPV disclosure using data from Wave 6 interviews for Project HOW: Health Outcomes of Women. Participants (N = 201) were asked proportionately how many friends and family reacted positively and negatively to IPV disclosure. MANOVAs revealed significant differences in perceptions of positive social reactions by ethnicity and severity.

Social-Level Factors Related to Positive Mental Health Outcomes Following Intimate Partner Violence: Results from a Population-Based Aotearoa New Zealand Sample

“…In the subsample of women who had disclosed their IPV to someone, those who reported experience of any negative response to disclosure were much less likely to report positive mental health. This strong finding is consistent with the previous literature, which reported that negative social reactions to disclosure may compound the negative impacts of IPV (Woerner et al, 2019; Yndo et al, 2019). If people receive negative responses to their disclosure, they are likely to experience more distress and less likely to seek further help or disclose the violence again (Family Violence Death Review Committee, 2016).…”

“…Previous research has highlighted that response at the point of disclosure is an important gateway to accessing additional support. Fostering an environment where people feel supported to disclose can enable future help-seeking (Yndo et al, 2019). While positive responses to disclosure of sexual IPV (partner and nonpartner) did not emerge as a significant factor contributing to mental health in our study, this is likely because 95% of the IPV subsample who had told someone about their abuse reported that they had not received positive responses to disclosure.…”

Social Reactions Received by Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Validation of Key Constructs From the Social Reactions Questionnaire

“…Quantitative studies suggest that IPV survivors experience all seven forms of social reactions measured by the SRQ (Bonnan-White et al, 2015; DePrince et al, 2014; Edwards & Dardis, 2020; Schackner et al, 2017; Sullivan et al, 2010). Exploratory factor analyses of SRQ items completed by IPV survivors have also confirmed the positive and negative structure of the SRQ, and the resulting subscale scores evidenced high reliability (Edwards, Dardis, et al, 2015; Sullivan et al, 2010; Yndo et al, 2018).…”

“…While there is clearly overlap in research conducted with sexual assault survivors and research with survivors of IPV, the SRQ was not initially developed with IPV in mind. As a result of contextual differences in social reactions toward survivors of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse (Goodkind et al, 2003; Rogers & Follingstad, 2014; Schackner et al, 2017; Sullivan et al, 2010; Yndo et al, 2018), the SRQ may not completely capture the full range of social reactions toward survivors of IPV. Such concerns have led to calls for more extensive research examining the potentially unique aspects of social reactions toward survivors of IPV (Edwards, Dardis, et al, 2015; Overstreet et al, 2019; Woerner et al, 2019).…”

“…While our understanding of social reactions toward survivors of interpersonal violence has grown, much of the existing literature has been based on the experiences of sexual assault survivors (Ahrens et al, 2009; Borja et al, 2006; DePrince et al, 2017; Relyea & Ullman, 2015; Ullman, 1996, 2000) and the predominant measure of social reactions—the Social Reactions Questionnaire (SRQ)—was developed using a sample of sexual assault survivors (Ullman, 2000). This measure has been used successfully by several IPV researchers (Bonnan-White et al, 2015; DePrince et al, 2014; Edwards & Dardis, 2020; Edwards et al, 2012; Edwards, Dardis, et al, 2015; Follingstad & Rogers, 2012; Hassija & Gray, 2012; Overstreet et al, 2019; Schackner et al, 2017; Sullivan et al, 2010; Yndo et al, 2018). However, it is not clear whether the current measure fully captures social reactions received by survivors of IPV.…”