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Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Victims’ Relational and Sexual Well-Being

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Abstract

Research shows that experiences with intimate partner violence (IPV) harm victims’ individual well-being. Surprisingly, little is known about how IPV might impact on victims’ well-being at the relationship level. Based on a population-based study in Flanders (the Northern part of Belgium), this study concentrates on how lifetime experience with IPV impacts on victims’ relational and sexual well-being with their current partner. Ten percent of the population was confronted with physical violence and 56.7 % with psychological violence. Higher levels of IPV victimization corresponded with an adverse mental, relational (relationship satisfaction, attachment), and sexual (sexual satisfaction, sexual dysfunction, sexual communication) well-being in both women and men but except for the latter correlates, the effects were more pronounced for women than for men.

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Notes

  1. A specific population-based survey “Sexual Health of Ethnic Minorities in Flanders” was used to examine IPV victimization among non-Western, ethnic minorities in Flanders (i.e., Turkish and Moroccan descents).

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Acknowledgments

This research is the work of the “Sexpert Project” on sexual health in Flanders at the Ghent University, Ghent University Hospital and the University of Leuven (http://www.sexpert-vlaanderen.be/). We thank all participants, team members and promoters, and gratefully acknowledge the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders for supporting the project financially.

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  1. Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Sabine Hellemans, Marieke Dewitte, Olivia De Smet & Ann Buysse

  2. Department of Data Analysis, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Tom Loeys

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  1. Sabine Hellemans
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Correspondence to Sabine Hellemans.

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Hellemans, S., Loeys, T., Dewitte, M. et al. Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Victims’ Relational and Sexual Well-Being. J Fam Viol 30, 685–698 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9712-z

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