Intimate Partner Violence in Belgium: Prevalence, Individual Health Outcomes, and Relational Correlates
Open accessAbstract
Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) using national samples is important to guide prevention efforts. However, the latest prevalence estimates for Belgium date from more than ten years ago. Therefore, this study used population-based cross-sectional data (N = 1,472) to assess to what extent adult women and men in Belgium experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence from their current partner in the last year. Next to assessing the association with individual health correlates, we explored the association between IPV and relationship quality. The annual prevalence of physical IPV in a current relationship was 1.3%. Only women experienced sexual IPV (0.3%). Fourteen percent of the respondents reported psychological violence and no differences were noted between women and men. Victims of psychological IPV reported adverse mental health outcomes and the effect was stronger for women than for men. Additionally, psychological victimization was associated with a diminished level of relationship quality, but no gender differences were noted.
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Three studies found psychological violence to predict a combined depression/anxiety outcome.
“Lastly, three studies found psychological violence to predict a combined depression/anxiety outcome [85–87].”
From The psychological subtype of intimate partner violence and its effect on mental health: a systematic review with meta-analyses (2022) · cites this paper as [86]
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- Authors
- Hellemans, S., Buysse, A., De Smet, O., & Wietzker, A.
- Affiliations
- Ghent University (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Hellemans, Sabine
- Wietzker, Anne
- ORCID
- Buysse, Ann
- Venue
- Psychologica Belgica
- Publisher
- Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
- Published
- 2014-01-21
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 79-96
- ISSN
- 0033-2879 (ISSN-L)
- 2054-670X
- OpenAlex
- W2165472838
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 2.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychologica Belgica (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Psychologica Belgica (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Universiteit Gent
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- intimate partner violence, prevalence, psychological violence, physical violence, sexual violence, relationship quality, mental health outcomes, gender differences, Belgium
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