The Impact and Consequences of Partner Abuse on Partners
This study represents a comprehensive review and critique of 122 empirical articles and 10 review articles on the psychological and physical consequences of psychological and physical abuse on partners and yielded several strong and consistent conclusions. Victims of psychological and
physical abuse experience more physical injuries, poorer physical functioning and health outcomes, higher rates of psychological symptoms and disorders, and poorer cognitive functioning compared to nonvictims. These findings were consistent regardless of the nature of the sample and, with
some exceptions, generally greater for female victims compared to male victims. Moreover, psychological victimization appears to be at least as strongly related to victims' psychological consequences as is physical victimization. There was a relative dearth of research examining the consequences
of psychological abuse for male victims, and the results of those studies have been mixed. Research examining sex differences yields strong and consistent evidence that physical violence has more deleterious consequences for women overall. However, the severity of the physical abuse seems
to moderate differences in injury rates. In addition to these known findings from past reviews, this study generated several novel findings. First, there is a small but critical group of studies demonstrating the effects of abuse on health behaviors. Second, physical victimization has serious
economic and social consequences for victims and society at large. Third, the consequences of abuse were significantly worse for female victims who were of low income, ethnic minorities, and/or unemployed. In the second section of this article, we critique the existing literature in terms
of the content of the research, as well as on conceptual and methodological grounds. In the third section we offer specific recommendations for future research and intervention efforts.
Keywords: PARTNER ABUSE; PHYSICAL AGGRESSION; PSYCHOLOGICAL AGGRESSION; REVIEW; VICTIMS
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 October 2012
- Partner Abuse is no longer available to subscribers on Ingenta Connect. Please go to http://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgrpa to access your online subscription to Partner Abuse.
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content