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Beyond Bruises and Broken Bones: The Joint Effects of Stress and Injuries on Battered Women's Health
Author(s) -
Sutherland Cheryl A.,
Bybee Deborah I.,
Sullivan Cris M.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1016317130710
Subject(s) - health psychology , domestic violence , physical abuse , public health , poverty , medicine , depression (economics) , poison control , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , suicide prevention , structural equation modeling , clinical psychology , psychology , psychiatry , environmental health , nursing , pathology , economics , macroeconomics , economic growth , statistics , mathematics
Abstract We investigated the joint mediating effects of injuries and stress on the relationship between abuse and women's health. A community sample of 397 women, half of whom had been assaulted by an intimate partner within the prior 6 months, was interviewed about their experience of intimate partner violence, injuries, stress, income, depression, and physical health problems. Structural equation modeling techniques confirmed the complex model of hypothesized indirect effects of abuse on women's physical health problems through injuries, stress, and depression. Stress accounted for 80% of the indirect effect of abuse on women's physical health. Its direct effect on physical health was somewhat larger than its indirect effect through depression, but both processes played a key role in determining the effect of abuse on women's physical health problems. Furthermore, abuse was a stronger predictor of women's stress than was poverty. Implication and future research are discussed.