Intimate Partner Violence and Anal Intercourse In Young Adult Heterosexual Relationships

We sought to examine the prevalence of reciprocal (i.e., perpetrated by both partners) and nonreciprocal intimate partner violence and to determine whether reciprocity is related to violence frequency and injury. We analyzed data on young US adults aged 18 to 28 years from the 2001 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which contained information about partner violence and injury reported by 11,370 respondents on 18761 heterosexual relationships. Almost 24% of all relationships had some violence, and half (49.7%) of those were reciprocally violent. In nonreciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70% of the cases. Reciprocity was associated with more frequent violence among women (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.9, 2.8), but not men (AOR=1.26; 95% CI=0.9, 1.7). Regarding injury, men were more likely to inflict injury than were women (AOR=1.3; 95% CI=1.1, 1.5), and reciprocal intimate partner violence was associated with greater injury than was nonreciprocal intimate partner violence regardless of the gender of the perpetrator (AOR=4.4; 95% CI=3.6, 5.5). The context of the violence (reciprocal vs nonreciprocal) is a strong predictor of reported injury. Prevention approaches that address the escalation of partner violence may be needed to address reciprocal violence.

Forty years of published research (1966-2006) addressing physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual health was reviewed (51 manuscripts) and synthesized to determine (a) those sexual health indicators for which sufficient evidence is available to suggest a causal association and (b) gaps in the literature for which additional careful research is needed to establish causality and explain mechanisms for these associations. Sexual health was defined as a continuum of indicators of gynecology and reproductive health. IPV was consistently associated with sexual risk taking, inconsistent condom use, or partner nonmonogamy (23 of 27 studies), having an unplanned pregnancy or induced abortion (13 of 16 studies), having a sexually transmitted infection (17 of 24 studies), and sexual dysfunction (17 of 18 studies). A conceptual model was presented to guide further needed research addressing direct and indirect mechanisms by which physical, sexual, and psychological IPV affects sexual health.