Mai El-Khoury, MPhil¹, Ayodola Anise, MHS², Stacey Kaltman, PhD², Katherine De Meo, BA², and Mary Ann Dutton, PhD². (1) Department of Psychology, The George Washington University, 2125 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, 202-994-6320, mai@gwu.edu, (2) Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center, 612 Kober Cogan, 3800 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, DC 20007

The effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women’s lives are far-reaching, ultimately impacting their overall health, mental health and use of legal, shelter and medical services. In an effort to cope with violence exposure, many women use strategies including seeking a protection order, talking to friends and family, safety planning and fighting back. While little is understood about battered women’s use of IPV, this study proposes that IPV exposure and threat appraisal are predictive of whether women will use violence against their abusive partners. Data were collected from a sample of predominately low-income African American women originally recruited from help-seeking sites, such as courts and shelters, as part of a larger longitudinal study on battered women’s experiences. For this study, only the responses of women who had in person contact with their batterers and who completed the third and fourth follow-up interviews (9 and 12 months following recruitment) were included in the analyses, yielding a sample of 152 women. Questions related to women’s use of IPV were included in these two follow-up interviews, and 21% of the participants (n=32) reported having used IPV in the assessed three-month period. Preliminary results from univariate logistic regressions suggest that women’s exposure to IPV (β =.079, p =.000) and women’s threat appraisal (β =.430, p =.012) were significant predictors of whether women used IPV against their batterers. Findings will be discussed within the framework of battered women’s clinical presentation, coping mechanisms and treatment considerations.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how women’s exposure to IPV predicts their use of IPV against their partners; identify the strategies women employ when coping with intimate partner violence

Keywords: Mental Health, Domestic Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.