Testing posttraumatic stress as a mediator of physical, sexual, and psychological intimate partner violence and substance problems among women

✍ Scribed by Tami P. Sullivan; Courtenay E. Cavanaugh; Julia D. Buckner; Donald Edmondson

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 145 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.20474

✦ Synopsis

This study examined whether posttraumatic stress specifically resulting from intimate partner violence (IPVrelated posttraumatic stress) mediated relationships between types of IPV and drug and alcohol problems among 212 women currently experiencing IPV. Six-month prevalence was high for drug use (48%) and alcohol use (59%). Structural equation modeling revealed that the frequency of physical, sexual, and psychological IPV were significantly and positively related to greater IPV-related posttraumatic stress, and IPV-related posttraumatic stress was significantly and positively related to drug problems. Further, IPV-related posttraumatic stress mediated the relationships between physical IPV and drug problems and psychological IPV and drug problems. Findings suggest that prevention and intervention efforts targeting posttraumatic stress among IPV-exposed women may reduce drug problems in this population.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a problem of major public health importance that is related to substance problems among women (Wekerle & Wall, 2002). Among IPV-exposed women, 7-44% report drug and alcohol problems severe enough to be diagnosed with substance abuse or dependence (Golding, 1999). Further, IPV-exposed women are more likely than women who are not exposed to IPV to report heavy or binge drinking (Bonomi et al., 2006;Lemon, Verhoek-Oftedahl, & Donnelly, 2002) and to abuse or be dependent on drugs and/or alcohol (McCauley et al., 1995;Tolman & Rosen, 2001).

Despite the high rates of substance misuse among IPV-exposed women, little research has examined factors that may increase the risk of drug and alcohol problems in this population. Yet the identification of such factors could inform treatment and prevention efforts. One potential factor is posttraumatic stress. Intimate partner violence is related to high levels of posttraumatic stress (Coker,