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Does it make any difference if she is a mother? An interactional perspective on intimate partner violence with a focus on motherhood and pregnancy
- Authors:
- VATNAR Solveig Karin Bo;, BJORKLY Stal
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(1), January 2010, pp.94-110.
- Publisher:
- Sage
After 30 years of research on intimate partner violence (IPV) little is known on mothering in the context of IPV. In the 1980s, women who suffered IPV often returned to a relationship for the sake of their children. Conversely, in the 1990s, this reversed – women left a partner for the sake of their children. To date, having children has been identified as both a potentially protective factor, and a risk factor, but the majority of research points to children being an augmenting factor for IPV in women. This study reports on the impact of motherhood and pregnancy on interactional aspects of IPV among women seeking help, asking: ‘does having children provide protection, or increase risk factors for IPV severity, injury, duration, frequency, and mortal danger’; ‘do survivors who experience IPV during pregnancy differ from those who do not?’; ‘is IPV during pregnancy characterized by different severity, injury, frequency, and mortal danger?’. Representative samples of women were interviewed, and the findings include motherhood increasing the risk for longer duration of IPV. Combinations of main categories of IPV during pregnancy were different from when not pregnant. Duration of physical and psychological IPV was the only variable increasing the likelihood of experiencing IPV during pregnancy. Physical IPV variables were significantly lower during pregnancy. For psychological IPV, all variables but frequency were lower. Only mortal danger was significantly lower in the sexual IPV main category.