The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Call for Interdisciplinary Research

Abstract

An emerging body of research suggests that survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are at a high risk for sustaining traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, most scholars and practitioners working on the problem of IPV have not examined how TBI could be related to their familiar subject of study. Concomitantly, little work in the brain injury field has been done to examine TBI in the context of IPV. In this paper, we encourage cross-collaboration among these fields. To that end, we consider the relationship between IPV and TBI; the difficulty in detecting and measuring the IPV-related TBI and ethical concerns that may arise when addressing this issue. Our work emphasizes the need to recognize the complex interplay among psycho-physiological health and socio-cultural contexts. As such, we present a socio-ecological perspective of IPV-related TBI to provide a contextual framework to guide future interdisciplinary research. Finally, we outline directions for future research.