Physically abused pregnant women's perceptions about the quality of their relationships with their male partners.
OBJECTIVE
Most studies of pregnant victims of intimate partner violence have focused on the violent behaviors, without examining other potentially important dimensions of the relationships. This research studies pregnant abuse victims to examine the frequency of violent behaviors occurring during pregnancy, how women characterize the quality of their relationships, and the association between violence frequency and women's perceptions concerning the overall quality of their relationships.


METHODS
Eighty-one women who were physically abused by intimate partners during pregnancy were interviewed. Information was collected concerning the women's: experiences of partner violence during pregnancy; perceptions of other aspects of the quality of their relationships; and sociodemographic characteristics.


RESULTS
The most frequent type of violent behavior occurring during pregnancy was verbal aggression, followed by minor violence, and then severe violence. Men perpetrated each type of violent behavior at significantly higher rates than did their female partners. In general, the women were quite negative in their characterizations of many dimensions of their relationships, as well as in their perceptions concerning the overall quality of their relationships, with women who had been victims of more frequent violence being significantly more likely to characterize their relationships as being of lower overall quality (OR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.4-8.7).


CONCLUSIONS
Prenatal care providers are encouraged to screen their patients for intimate partner violence, and to work with others in their community to assure that women in abusive situations are offered appropriate services/interventions including safe and feasible alternatives to staying in unsatisfactory relationships with abusive partners.
Cloutier
Suzanne
S
Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27759-7445, USA. sandra_martin@unc.edu
Martin
Sandra L
SL
Moracco
Kathryn E
KE
Garro
Julian
J
Clark
Kathryn Andersen
KA
Brody
Seth
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008403:Mass Screening; D009657:North Carolina; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000592:standards; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population