142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

298733
Safety strategy use among women seeking temporary protective orders: The relationship between violence experienced, strategy effectiveness, and risk perception

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Elizabeth M. Parker, PhD, MHS , Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Andrea C. Gielen, ScD, ScM , Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Renan Castillo, PhD, MS , Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Daniel W. Webster, ScD, MPH , Center for Gun Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Background: There is an urgent need for effective interventions that enable women in current or past violent relationships to reduce their risk of revictimization. One approach that can be taken is to encourage women to adopt strategies that theoretically increase their safety. Safety planning is an overarching term that captures many of these safety strategies. Although safety planning is common, there is little empirical research focusing on strategy effectiveness.

Objective: This study examined safety strategy use in relation to intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, perceived effectiveness of the strategies, and perception of danger from IPV among abused women.

Methods: Interviews were conducted with 197 women seeking temporary protective orders from a domestic violence service provider’s legal clinic. All women were 18 years of age or older and had experienced some level of physical abuse by a current/former intimate partner.

Results: Over 90% of the women used one or more strategies in the six months prior to their interview. Severe physical (β=0.25;p≤0.01) and sexual (β=0.12;p≤0.01) violence were significantly associated with increased use of placating strategies. Perceived effectiveness of the strategies was high, yet not significantly associated with strategy use. Increased perception of danger from IPV (β=0.03;p≤0.05) was significantly associated with increased use of safety planning strategies.

Conclusion: The results suggest the women were in dangerous situations and they were attempting to protect themselves using safety strategies with questionable effectiveness. These findings contribute to an important line of research aimed at better understanding how context influences women’s help-seeking behavior.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the strategies women may use to protect themselves from an abusive current/former intimate partner. Discuss the associations between safety strategy use and intimate partner violence victimization, perceived effectiveness of the strategies, and perception of danger from violence among abused women.

Keyword(s): Violence & Injury Prevention, Women's Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a post-doctoral fellow with a background in behavioral sciences and health education. To date, my work has focused primarily on injury prevention in high risk populations (e.g., early adolescents in urban environments, women in current/former violent relationships). My research interests include developing, implementing, and evaluating injury prevention programs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.