Willis, M. et al. (2023) Prevalence and correlates of fearing a partner during the COVID-19 pandemic in Britain: findings from Natsal-COVID. Journal of Family Violence, (doi: 10.1007/s10896-023-00665-w) (Early Online Publication)
![[img]](https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
308908.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. 775kB |
Abstract
Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions introduced personal and relationship stressors that potentially increased the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) for some. We estimated the population prevalence and correlates of fearing a partner in the first year of the pandemic in Britain. Method We used data from Natsal-COVID Wave 2—a web-panel survey undertaken one year after the initial British lockdown from 23 March 2020. Quotas and weighting were used to achieve a quasi-representative sample of the general population. Participants were asked about fearing a partner, which is a simple and valid screening tool to identify IPV experiences. Results In our sample (unweighted n = 6302, aged 18–59), 9.0% of women and 8.7% of men reported fearing a partner in the first year of the pandemic. Women (73.3%) were more likely than men (49.9%) to indicate that fearing a partner made them feel anxious or depressed; men were more likely to report increased substance use (30.8% vs. 18.4%) and affected work/studies (30.0% vs. 20.0%). For both women and men, fearing a partner during the first year of the pandemic was associated with established health and wellbeing outcomes like anxiety/depression, alcohol use, accessing sexual/reproductive health services, and relationship dissolution as well as feeling that the “pandemic made things worse” across various life domains. Conclusions Population-level estimates of IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic highlight harmful experiences that occurred alongside other wide-ranging hardships, and the associations presented identify key populations with potential ongoing need. We make recommendations for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of IPV.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding: The Natsal Resource, which is supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust (212,931/Z/18/Z), with contributions from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), supports the Natsal-COVID Study in addition to funding from the UCL COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund and the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (Core funding, MC_UU_00022/3; SPHSU18). |
| Keywords: | Intimate partner violence, fearing partner, domestic abuse, COVID-19, pandemic, cross-sectional survey. |
| Status: | Early Online Publication |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Willis, Dr Malachi and Baxter, Dr Andy and Mitchell, Professor Kirstin and Boso Perez, Ms Raquel and Riddell, Miss Julie |
| Authors: | Willis, M., Tanton, C., Conolly, A., Baxter, A. J., Bosó Pérez, R., Riddell, J., Dema, E., Copas, A. J., Macdowall, W., Bonell, C., Mercer, C. H., Sonnenberg, P., Field, N., and Mitchell, K. R. |
| College/School: | College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU |
| Journal Name: | Journal of Family Violence |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| ISSN: | 0885-7482 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1573-2851 |
| Published Online: | 24 November 2023 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023 |
| First Published: | First published in Journal of Family Violence 2023 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence |
| Data DOI: | 10.5255/UKDA-SN-8865-2 |
University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record
Funder and Project Information
Funder and Project Information