Intimate Partner Violence and Depression in the Latino Community: Rates and Patterns During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Periods

Pregnancy, a period characterized by physical, emotional, and social changes, elevates the risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) in women. If experienced, both physical and emotional abuse can cause adverse consequences for mothers and infants. One of those prevalent consequences of IPV is depression. Latinas have been found to experience higher rates of IPV compared to their Caucasian counterparts and depression at 2 to 3 times higher rates than the national average, but are vastly underrepresented in the literature on IPV. The purpose of this study is fourfold. It identifies rates of IPV screening during the perinatal periods. It also examines rates and types of IPV in Latina primary care patients across the perinatal periods, and examines the degree to which IPV rates are accounted for by patient characteristics and type of prenatal care. Lastly, this study investigates the relationship between IPV and depressive symptoms during the perinatal periods. The participant set is 296 low-income Latina primary care patients. Rates of IPV in this population ranged from 7% to 9% throughout the perinatal periods. While 3%--6% of women reported experiencing intimate partner physical abuse, 13%--23% of women reported experiencing intimate partner emotional abuse. Thus, women reported significantly higher rates of emotional abuse than physical abuse throughout the perinatal periods. Women with higher IPV scores (HITS) were more likely to have higher depression scores (EPDS) throughout this time. Rates of IPV were significantly, positively correlated with rates of depressive symptoms at each trimester and postpartum. Women who preferred their care in Spanish and with greater parity were more likely to have higher rates of IPV (HITS). Both physical and emotional abuse were significantly, positively correlated with depression levels (EPDS) throughout the perinatal periods.