Resilience in Women After Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Objective To describe the distribution of well-being in survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and examine the relationships between the Resilience Portfolio Model and well-being. Method This study was a cross-sectional survey of 665 women IPV survivors from three Canadian provinces. Well-being was defined as a multi-domain score. Partial proportional ordinal regression was used to evaluate relationships between Resilience Portfolio Model elements and well-being. Results The median score for well-being was 3 out of 6 and the mode was 2. The factors that were associated with well-being included: income, education, focusing on the future, and receiving emotional support. Thinking that one’s partner would stop being violent if they stopped using alcohol or drugs was statistically significant for lower levels of well-being. Conclusions This study reveals that there is variable well-being in IPV survivors, and provides evidence for specific traits or behaviours that may support well-being in this population.