Community Matters: Intimate Partner Violence Among Rural Young Adults

Abstract

Drawing on social disorganization theory, the current study examined the extent to which community-level poverty rates and collective efficacy influenced individual reports of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, victimization, and bystander intervention among a sample of 178 young adults (18-24; 67.4% women) from 16 rural counties across the eastern US who completed an online survey that assessed demographic information, IPV perpetration, victimization, bystander intervention, and collective efficacy. We computed each county's poverty rate from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey. Generalized estimating equations demonstrated that after controlling for individual-level income status, community-level poverty positively predicted IPV victimization and perpetration for both men and women. Collective efficacy was inversely related to IPV victimization and perpetration for men; however, collective efficacy was unrelated to IPV victimization and perpetration for women. Whereas IPV bystander intervention was positively related to collective efficacy and inversely related to individual-level income status for both men and women, community-level poverty was unrelated to IPV bystander intervention for both men and women. Overall, these findings provide some support for social disorganization theory in explaining IPV among rural young adults, and underscore the importance of multi-level IPV prevention and intervention efforts focused around community-capacity building and enhancement of collective efficacy.

Improving College Campus–Based Prevention of Violence Against Women

“…For example, Banyard et al's study (in preparation) indicates that students perceive institutional level barriers (e.g., that they will be prosecuted for underage drinking if they seek formal supports to help another student) to being active bystanders to prevent sexual violence. Edwards, Mattingly, Dixon, and Banyard (2014) found that community factors such as community-level poverty from census data were correlated with higher incidence rates of IPV in a sample of rural young adults. What is more, perceptions of collective efficacy were linked to greater active bystander intervention (Edwards, Mattingly, Dixon, & Banyard, 2014).…”

Call for Research on Bystander Intervention to Prevent Sexual Violence: The Role of Campus Environments

“…However, a growing body of evidence specific to college campuses (i.e. Banyard 2008;Bennett et al 2013;Edwards et al 2014) suggests that sense of community and collective efficacy may indeed be significant predictors of bystander intervention.…”

Bystander Action in Situations of Dating and Sexual Aggression: A Mixed Methodological Study of High School Youth

“…To address bystander action in programming efforts, it is important to understand the factors that facilitate or hinder bystander action. Accordingly, there is a burgeoning body of literature examining the factors related to dating and sexual aggression bystander action among college students (e.g., Banyard and Moynihan 2011;, rural young adults (e.g., Edwards et al 2014), and urban populations (e.g., Frye 2007;Frye et al 2008).…”