Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence victimization among Australia and New Zealand female university students: An initial examination of child maltreatment and self-reported depressive symptoms across profiles
| Author | Stacy Tzoumakis,Jesse Cale,Benoit Leclerc,Jan Breckenridge |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865816666615 |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2017, Vol. 50(4) 582–601
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865816666615
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Article
Patterns of Intimate Partner
Violence victimization among
Australia and New Zealand
female university students:
An initial examination of
child maltreatment and
self-reported depressive
symptoms across profiles
Jesse Cale
University of New South Wales, Australia
Stacy Tzoumakis
University of New South Wales, Australia
Benoit Leclerc
Griffith University, Australia
Jan Breckenridge
University of New South Wales, Australia
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between child abuse, depression, and
patterns of Intimate Partner Violence victimization among female university students in
Australia and New Zealand. Data were based on the Australia/New Zealand portion
of the International Dating Violence Study (2001–2005) (n ¼293). Using Latent Class
Analysis, Low-, Moderate-, and High-level Intimate Partner Violence profiles were identified
that differed according to the variety, degree, and severity of Intimate Partner Violence.
Furthermore, the combination of child maltreatment and self-reported depressive symptoms
differed across profiles. The results highlighted differential pathways from child maltreatment
to specific Intimate Partner Violence victimization patterns. These findings provide further
evidence for the importance of early intervention strategies to prevent Intimate Partner
Violence, and specifically for children who experience abuse and neglect to help prevent
subsequent victimization experiences in intimate relationship contexts.
Corresponding author:
Jesse Cale, UNSW Australia Kensington Campus, Sydney 2052, New South Wales, Australia.
Email: j.cale@unsw.edu.au
Keywords
Child maltreatment, depression, Intimate Partner Violence, victimization
Date received: 15 April 2016; accepted: 25 July 2016
Introduction
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) victimization continues to be a critical health issue all
over the world. IPV can be broadly understood as psychological, physical, or sexual
violence by an intimate partner past or present (e.g. Heise & Garcia-Moreno, 2002).
There is growing recognition about the complexity of this phenomenon in terms of
causes, consequences, and the co-occurrence of different types. However, IPV is not a
unitary phenomenon (Kelly & Johnson, 2008) and relatively little is known about pat-
terns of violence against women among post-secondary students. This is an important
question considering high prevalence of dating violence identified in the Australian
Personal Safety Survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2012) that coincides
with the lifetime stage of tertiary study for many women. A few recent studies
have investigated the complexity in patterns of IPV victimization over the life-course
(e.g. Carbone-Lopez, Kruttschnitt, & MacMillan, 2006; Cavanaugh et al., 2012;
Dutton, Kaltman, Goodman, Weinfurt, & Vankos, 2005). Currently, however there
is a substantial gap in the literature concerning patterns of IPV victimization among
female university students. Furthermore, there is a dearth of empirical research on
the topic in Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, the main aim of the current
study was to investigate patterns of IPV victimization in a sample of female uni-
versity students from Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, we examined
whether and how certain child maltreatment experiences and mental health correlates
of victimization (i.e. depression) were associated with different IPV patterns to take a
first step in identifying pathways of lifetime victimization experiences among female
university students.
Patterns of IPV victimization
IPV victimization is a complex phenomenon and needs to be understood beyond the
mere presence or absence of certain types of violence and abuse. The presence of physical
violence has been the most common focus/indicator of IPV in past research (e.g.
Langhinrichsen-Rohling, 2010). A key definitional limitation was that it typically
encompassed sexual abuse (i.e. Straus, 1995) yet often excluded other forms of IPV
such as psychological, verbal, and emotional aggression and economic control. This
was despite the fact that psychological aggression can often be as damaging, and in
some cases more damaging in the long-term than physical abuse (O’Leary, 1999).
The perception of more covert forms of IPV as less serious is also problematic for several
reasons. First, the impact on victims of these types of non-physical IPV has been shown
to be substantial, especially in terms of mental health outcomes such as depression and
poor adult relationships (Coker et al., 2002; Mechanic, Weaver, & Resick, 1996;
Rogers & Follingstad, 2014). In addition, there is evidence that psychological IPV
Cale et al. 583
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