A Qualitative Study of Young Women’s Abusive First Relationships: What Factors Shape their Process of Disclosure?

Abstract

We qualitatively explored young women’s intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization within abusive first relationships (characterized by physical IPV, coercive control, and/or sexual IPV), and their disclosure process. We recruited a diverse sample (N = 21) from a university, a two-year college, and community sites serving low-income young women. We conducted retrospective, semi-structured interviews about their IPV experiences with their first boyfriends (M participant age when relationship started = 14.9 years old), and the factors that influenced their disclosure. We used grounded theory involving open, axial, and selective coding to analyze the role of social location; prior familial and extra-familial victimization; community, developmental, and situational factors; and stigmatization in shaping their experiences with IPV and disclosure. Four theoretical patterns emerged: 1) intimate terrorism, concomitant with the emergence of a quasi-parent-child dynamic between some participants and partners, and the role of these relationship characteristics in influencing disclosure, 2) key factors in those relationships marked by severe IPV but low fear, abuse minimization, and limited disclosure, 3) the role of IPV severity, type, and situational factors in distinguishing participants who sought help from law enforcement, and 4) how stigmatization, in concert with situational factors, shaped disclosure. Early IPV victimization is not uniformly experienced, and the disclosure process appears very complex and multi-determined. It is critical that we design IPV prevention and intervention approaches with this in mind, if we are to be effective in reaching an increasingly diverse generation of adolescents, facilitating their disclosure, and interrupting abuse.