DOI: 10.3886/icpsr21020.v1
title: Impact of Violent Victimization on Physical and Mental Health Among Women in the United States, 1994-1996
title: Version 1

description: The major goals of the project were to use survey data
 about victimization experiences among American women to examine: (a)
 the consequences of victimization for women's physical and mental
 health, (b) how the impact of victimization on women's health sequelae
 is conditioned by the victim's invoking of family and community
 support, and (c) how among victims of intimate partner violence, such
 factors as the relationship between the victim and offender, the
 offender's characteristics, and police involvement condition the
 impact of victimization on the victim's subsequent physical and mental
 health. This data collection consists of the SPSS syntax used to
 recode existing variables and create new variables from the study,
 VIOLENCE AND THREATS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND MEN IN THE UNITED
 STATES, 1994-1996 (ICPSR 2566). The study, also known as the National
 Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS), surveyed 8,000 women 18 years
 of age or older residing in households throughout the United States in
 1995 and 1996. The data for the NVAWS were gathered via a national,
 random-digit dialing sample of telephone households in the United
 States, stratified by United States Census region. The NVAWS
 respondents were asked about their lifetime experiences with four
 different kinds of violent victimization: sexual abuse, physical
 abuse, stalking, and intimidation. Using the data from the NVAWS, the
 researchers in this study performed three separate analyses. The study
 included outcome variables, focal variables, moderator variables, and
control variables.
description: The major goals of the project were to use survey
 data about victimization experiences among American women to examine:
 (a) the consequences of childhood, adolescent, and adult victimization
 for women's physical and mental health, where violent victimization is
 defined by experiencing either physical or sexual assault, stalking,
 or threats from another person or persons, (b) how the impact of
 victimization on women's health sequelae is conditioned by the
 victim's invoking of family and community support, and (c) how among
 victims of intimate partner violence, such factors as the relationship
 between the victim and offender, the offender's characteristics (stake
 in conformity), and police involvement condition the impact of
victimization on the victim's subsequent physical and mental health.
description: This data collection consists of the SPSS syntax
 used to recode existing variables and create new variables from the
 study, VIOLENCE AND THREATS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND MEN IN THE
 UNITED STATES, 1994-1996 (ICPSR 2566). The study, also know as the
 National Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS), surveyed 8,000 women
 18 years of age or older residing in households throughout the United
 States in 1995 and 1996. The data for the NVAWS were gathered via a
 national, random-digit dialing sample of telephone households in the
 United States, stratified by United States Census region. The NVAWS
 respondents were asked about their lifetime experiences with four
 different kinds of violent victimization: sexual abuse, physical
 abuse, stalking, and intimidation. Respondents disclosing
 victimization were asked detailed questions about the characteristics
 and consequences of victimization as they experienced it, including
 injuries sustained and use of medical services. Incidents were
 recorded that had occurred at any time during the respondent's
 lifetime and also those that occurred within the 12 months prior to
 the interview. Additionally, respondents were queried about their
 physical and mental health, demographic characteristics, and
 characteristics of the current partner, if present. Due to the
 sensitive nature of the survey, female respondents were interviewed by
 women and when a respondent disclosed abuse or appeared in distress,
 local support services were offered. Using data from the NVAWS, the
 researchers in this study performed three separate analyses. The first
 analysis examined the consequences of violence for women's health.
 Second, for the sample of violent crime victims, the researchers
 examined how appealing to sources of community support conditions the
 impact of the victimization on health outcomes. Finally, the
 researchers examined the moderating effect of help-seeking on health
outcomes in the context of violence by an intimate partner.
description: The study includes outcome variables, focal
 variables, moderator variables, and control variables. The outcome
 variables include: depressive symptomatology, concern for personal
 safety, self-protective behaviors, self-assessed health,
 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the exhibition of substance
 use (heavy episodic drinking, illicit drug use, and prescription drug
 use). Focal variables measure the impact on physical and mental health
 of physical assault, sexual assault, stalking, and threatening.
 Moderator variables related to the victimization event, victim's
 help-seeking behavior, and characteristics of the perpetrator. The
 characteristics of the violent victimizations employed in the models
 include: life-course stage of victimization (child, teen, and adult),
 the victim-offender relationship (relative, acquaintance,
 stranger), and intimate partner (current or former). The help-seeking
 variables include family, friends, neighbors, and clergy, and the
 community support measures include rape crisis centers, domestic
 violence shelters, rape counselors, doctors, and psychiatrists. The
 police response variables include: arresting the perpetrator, taking a
 report, providing the victim with information on victim or court
 services, or providing advice on self-protection. Control variables
 include age, race, education, personal income, child abuse, number of
 children in the household, and dummy variables for having ever
 sustained a serious injury, having had a chronic disease or disabling
 health condition, having had a chronic mental condition, marital
 status, employment status, and being the first to hit the offender in
cases of physical assault.
description: none
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: The 12 items on physical victimization in the NVAWS were
 adaptations of items in the Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus, 1979,
 #4629). The PTSD inventory used in the NVAWS was adopted from the
 "Impact of Event Scale" developed by Daniel Weiss. Several Likert-type
 scales were also used in the NVAWS. For this project, the researchers
 developed a depression scale, a scale of extent/severity of assault, a
concern for safety scale, as well as scales of alcohol and drug use.
description: The first set of analyses examining the consequences of
 childhood, adolescent, and adult victimization for women's subsequent
 physical and mental health were based on the full sample of women in
 the NVAWS. After omitting those with missing data on the response
 variables, involved samples ranged between 7,380 and 7,585
 respondents. The second set of analyses examining the moderating
 effects of social support on physical and mental health outcomes
 employ the sample of women who had been the victim of sexual assault,
 physical assault, stalking or threats. After omitting those with
 missing data on the response variables, the involved samples ranged
 between 4,078 and 4,093 respondents. The final stage of the project
 identified the impact of intimate partner violence and examined the
 moderating effect of help-seeking strategies on the relationship
 between the extent/severity of victimization and health outcomes in
 the context of violent victimization by an intimate partner. In this
 last case, the researchers looked at how the moderating effect of
 community support is conditioned on the offender's stake in
 conformity. These analyses employed only those who had been victimized
 by a current partner. After omitting those with missing data on the
response variables, the involved sample included 410 respondents.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Impact of Violent Victimization on Physical and Mental Health Among Women in the United States, 1994-1996
description: inap. Smallest Geographic Unit: none
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)In order to use the SPSS syntax file provided in this
 collection, users must first obtain VIOLENCE AND THREATS OF VIOLENCE
 AGAINST WOMEN AND MEN IN THE UNITED STATES, 1994-1996 (ICPSR 2566),
available from the ICPSR Web site: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu.