A Comparative Study Examining Associations Between Women’s Drug-Related Lifestyle Factors and Victimization Within the Family

Abstract

This study explores and compares the interrelationships between lifespan childhood and adult partner victimization and the drug lifestyles for 609 women, aged 18–65, from a drug-treatment sample, a women’s domestic violence shelter sample, and community samples matched with the drug-treatment and shelter samples. Significant findings indicate that lifespan childhood and adult partner victimization were the strongest predictors of women’s drug-related lifestyle activities. Three proposed hypotheses were supported to suggest that an association exists between the respondents’ lifespan childhood and partner victimization scores and drug-related lifestyle activities scores, with these relationships modified by intervening variables, such as age, marital status, partner substance use, and parental substance use. Findings also indicate significant differences among the four sample groups in terms of victimization and drug-related lifestyle factors. Implications, limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.