The Long Arc of Recovery: Characterizing Intimate Partner Violence and Its Psychosocial Effects Across 17 Years

Abstract

Little is known about how intimate partner violence (IPV) affects women’s long-term mental health. Using 17 years of data from adolescent mothers, this study (a) empirically identified three subgroups based on patterns of IPV exposure during 4 years of their adolescence; (b) found that subgroup membership was a predictor of psychosocial outcomes in the subsequent 13 years, and (c) showed that the long-term effects of IPV exposure persisted even while controlling for the role of early poverty. By their 30s, women had recovered from IPV such that there were no significant differences between groups at the final time point.