Citation

Woerner J, Sullivan TP. Violence Vict. 2019; 34(3): 508-521.

Affiliation

Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Springer Publishing)

DOI

10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-18-00119

PMID

31171731

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization is a strong predictor of women's sexual risk behavior. Social disconnection may be central to understanding this association. In a sample of 204 IPV victims, we (a) evaluated the extent to which social disconnection underlies the association between IPV severity and sexual risk behavior, and (b) tested the idea that the association between social disconnection and sexual risk behavior is stronger among women without alternative means to social connection (i.e., lack close friendships). The indirect effect of physical and sexual IPV, respectively, on sexual risk behavior via social disconnection was significant. The number of close friends women had moderated the association between social disconnection and sexual risk behavior, such that having multiple close friendships buffered the effects of social disconnection.

© Copyright 2019 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Language: en

Keywords

friends; intimate partner violence; sexual risk behavior; social disconnection