Clinical trial NCT01206192: Differential Effects of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) on Mental Health
Official title: The Differential Effects of Intimate Terrorism and Situational Couple Violence on the Mental Health of Abused Chinese Women
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Battered Women
Keywords: Intimate Terrorism
Situational couple violence
Mental health
Chinese
Women
Lead sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2010-09-21
Enrollment: 600
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Shelter residents and community sample

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to extend the extant work on the typology of intimate partner violence (IPV) by employing mixed methods to collect quantitative and qualitative data.

Detailed description: Although post-traumatic stress disorder and depression have been identified as the two most common consequences of intimate partner violence, research has generally not differentiated the effects of different types of intimate partner violence on victim's mental health. With intimate partner violence treated as a single phenomenon rather than having different types, abused women are unlikely to receive the most appropriate interventions.

Johnson's typology of control has been used increasingly to classify intimate partner violence based on physical assault and controlling behavior. Two distinct types of the violence, Intimate Terrorism and Situational Couple Violence, have received much attention. The two differ not only in the cause and trajectory of the violence but also in the effects including mental health outcomes. Although control is a critical factor in distinguishing intimate terrorism from situational couple violence, there is no consensus on what constitutes high or low control in physically violent intimate relationships. Partly, this may be due to the sole reliance on quantitative measures to determine the levels of control. By understanding the context in which control tactics are used, qualitatively different phenomena between violent relationships with high control and those with low control may be more apparent. Thus, there is a need to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on the use of controlling behaviors.

It has also been hypothesized that intimate terrorism and situational couple violence have different mental health outcomes but few studies have examined this empirically and none has studied women's experiences of the negative psychological consequences as victims of these two types of violence.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Chinese women, aged 18 or above, from a shelter or a community centre, and screened positive for IPV in the past 12 months

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unable to communicate in Cantonese or Putonghua
* The perpetrator is not an intimate partner

Primary outcomes:
measure: Intimate terrorism and situational couple violence among shelter and community-dwelling abused Chinese women
timeFrame: one-off
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Use of controlling behaviors
timeFrame: one-off
measure: Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms
timeFrame: one-off
measure: Depression symptoms
timeFrame: one-off
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: China
facility: Po Leung Kuk
Study officials:
affiliation: The University of Hong Kong
name: Agnes Tiwari, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Tiwari A, Chan KL, Cheung DS, Fong DY, Yan EC, Tang DH. The differential effects of intimate terrorism and situational couple violence on mental health outcomes among abused Chinese women: a mixed-method study. BMC Public Health. 2015 Mar 31;15:314. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1649-x.
citation: Tiwari A, Cheung DS, Chan KL, Fong DY, Yan EC, Lam GL, Tang DH. Intimate partner sexual aggression against Chinese women: a mixed methods study. BMC Womens Health. 2014 May 25;14:70. doi: 10.1186/1472-6874-14-70.