If You Can’t Say Something Nice: A Latent Profile Analysis of Social Reactions to Intimate Partner Violence Disclosure and Associations With Mental Health Symptoms

Abstract

The social reactions that victims receive when disclosing intimate partner violence (IPV) have important implications for recovery and well-being. Women from the community (n = 172) reported IPV, reactions to IPV disclosure, and mental health symptoms in individual interviews. Latent profile analyses revealed three subgroups of victims with varied experiences of reactions. The group characterized by high negative/low positive reactions reported the highest depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity; symptom severity was high regardless of IPV severity. However, symptoms were only severe at high IPV severity among individuals classified into groups characterized by high positive reactions, and by low negative and low positive reactions.