Intimate Partner Violence, Social Support, Mastery, and Mental Health
type: CreativeWork
description: Background: Despite the growth in research on intimate partner violence (IPV) as a chronic stressor, including studies on the negative mental health impacts of IPV, limited attention has been given to understanding the stress process in terms of the direct impact of IPV on mental health and the simultaneous mediating effects of social support (emotional or practical assistance from one’s network) and mastery (a sense of personal control) on the relationship between IPV and mental health [Depression symptoms and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms]. These mechanisms are also poorly understood in the context of the concurrent effects of age, mothering, education, and intimate partner status. Purposes: This dissertation examined the direct impact of IPV on mental health (Depression symptoms and PTSD symptoms) and the mechanisms that explain the relationship between severity of IPV and women’s mental health at a specific point in time, with a particular focus on testing whether and how social support and mastery mediated this relationship, in the context of selected conditions of women’s lives. The specific purposes were: (i) to examine whether mastery and social support mediate the effects of IPV severity on mental health and (ii) to identify which aspects of the social context of women’s lives account for variations in the mechanisms between IPV and mental health. Methods: Drawing on feminist intersectionality, a secondary analysis was conducted using data from a sample of 462 women with histories of recent IPV (i.e., past 6 months) and who participated in the iCAN plan 4 safety trial. Participants completed online surveys comprised of standard self-report measures for each study variable: IPV severity (Composite Abuse Scale), Depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), PTSD (PTSD checklist, Civilian Version), Mastery (Pearlin’s Mastery Scale) and Social Support (Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey). Structural equation modeling…
abstract: Background: Despite the growth in research on intimate partner violence (IPV) as a chronic stressor, including studies on the negative mental health impacts of IPV, limited attention has been given to understanding the stress process in terms of the direct impact of IPV on mental health and the simultaneous mediating effects of social support (emotional or practical assistance from one’s network) and mastery (a sense of personal control) on the relationship between IPV and mental health [Depression symptoms and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms]. These mechanisms are also poorly understood in the context of the concurrent effects of age, mothering, education, and intimate partner status. Purposes: This dissertation examined the direct impact of IPV on mental health (Depression symptoms and PTSD symptoms) and the mechanisms that explain the relationship between severity of IPV and women’s mental health at a specific point in time, with a particular focus on testing whether and how social support and mastery mediated this relationship, in the context of selected conditions of women’s lives. The specific purposes were: (i) to examine whether mastery and social support mediate the effects of IPV severity on mental health and (ii) to identify which aspects of the social context of women’s lives account for variations in the mechanisms between IPV and mental health. Methods: Drawing on feminist intersectionality, a secondary analysis was conducted using data from a sample of 462 women with histories of recent IPV (i.e., past 6 months) and who participated in the iCAN plan 4 safety trial. Participants completed online surveys comprised of standard self-report measures for each study variable: IPV severity (Composite Abuse Scale), Depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), PTSD (PTSD checklist, Civilian Version), Mastery (Pearlin’s Mastery Scale) and Social Support (Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey). Structural equation modeling…
author: Sedziafa, Alice Pearl
language: en_ca
keywords: Intimate Partner Violence, Social Support, Mastery, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, Depression Symptoms
date published: 2023-03-10
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:56:03Z
provider: Western University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Western Ontario

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/32960