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Intimate Partner Violence and HIV-Risk Behaviors: Evaluating Avoidant Coping as a Moderator

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Abstract

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) report higher rates of HIV-risk behaviors. However, few studies have examined factors that may influence the strength of the link between IPV and HIV-risk behaviors. The goal of the current study was to extend extant research by evaluating the potential moderating role of avoidant coping in this relation. Participants were 212 women currently experiencing IPV (M age = 36.63, 70.8 % African American) who were recruited from the community. Significant positive associations were found between physical, psychological, and sexual IPV severity and both avoidant coping and HIV-risk behaviors. Avoidant coping moderated the relations between both physical and psychological IPV severity and HIV-risk behaviors, such that physical and psychological IPV severity were significantly associated with HIV-risk behaviors when avoidant coping was high (but not low). Findings underscore avoidant coping as an important factor in identifying and subsequently treating IPV-victimized women vulnerable to HIV-risk behaviors.

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Notes

  1. Of note, while the square-root transformed sexual IPV severity variable showed improved skew and kurtosis, it skill exhibited a non-normal distribution (non-transformed sexual IPV variable: skew = 4.04, kurtosis = 17.50; transformed sexual IPV variable: skew = 2.16, kurtosis = 5.03). As such, and consistent with past research [57], moderation analyses were also conducted using an ordinal sexual IPV variable (0 = no victimization/perpetration, 1 = sexual contact or coercion, and 2 = attempted rape or rape). Results remained the same in strength and direction with one exception: using the ordinal sexual IPV variable, a significant main effect was found for sexual IPV, B = .15, SE = .07, t = 2.18, p = .03, 95 % CI 0.01, 0.29.

  2. Moderation analyses were also conducted with condomless sex as the outcome (i.e., HIV-risk variable excluding the one item assessing sex trading). Results remained the same in strength and direction with one exception: with condomless sex as the outcome, a significant main effect was found for physical IPV, B = .17, SE = .07, t = 2.34, p = .02, 95 % CI 0.03, 0.31. We were not able to explore the main and interaction effects of IPV types and avoidant coping on sex trading because only 4.2 % of our sample (n = 9) reported this behavior in the past 6 months.

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  1. Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 389 Whitney Ave, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Nicole H. Weiss & Tami P. Sullivan

  2. Substance Use, Gender, and Applied Research Program, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

    Courtney Peasant

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Weiss, N.H., Peasant, C. & Sullivan, T.P. Intimate Partner Violence and HIV-Risk Behaviors: Evaluating Avoidant Coping as a Moderator. AIDS Behav 21, 2233–2242 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1588-2

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