Influence of rurality on intimate partner violence in young Australian women

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health issue in both developed and developing countries. IPV has been identified as a significant contributor to the burden of disease through its association with physical and mental ill-health, both in the short term, and in the long term through chronic health conditions. In developed countries, such as Australia, much of the research into IPV has been conducted in metropolitan settings. There is however a growing body of research, primarily from the USA, indicating that women living in non-metropolitan areas may experience differences in type, severity and prevalence of IPV compared to metropolitan women. To date there has been limited Australian research into aspects of IPV for women living outside major metropolitan centres. This thesis aimed to address this gap in the Australian IPV research by investigating differences in women's experiences of IPV across metropolitan, regional and more remote areas of Australia. This study used quantitative techniques to conduct a secondary analysis of data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), a national population-based health survey that provides longitudinal data for the sixteen year period from 1996 to 2012. This thesis specifically focuses on the ALSWH cohort of women born between 1973-78. This cohort of over 14,000 women was first surveyed in 1996 when their mean age was 21 years. Through the ALSWH, this cohort of women has been surveyed every three years and, to date, there have been six surveys, most recently in 2012, when the mean age of the cohort was 36 years. This thesis presents statistical analyses into geographic differences in five aspects of IPV, namely: lifetime prevalence of IPV, past 12 month prevalence and type of IPV, association of IPV and domestic relocation, IPV and self-reported health, and IPV and health service use.