Violence: Interpersonal ( IPV )

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important public health issue. Health communication research has explored how media portrayals, healthcare communication, and parent–child communication relate to IPV. Media portrayals of IPV tend to skew representations of risk through overemphasizing the killing of victims, underreporting drug and/or alcohol abuse of perpetrators, and presenting IPV as an individual‐level issue rather than a societal concern. Perceptions of IPV by the general public often contain stereotypes about emotion, control, and power, and these stereotypes are shaped by media portrayals. Parent–child communication about IPV impacts children's future IPV perpetration and victimization. Additionally, mothers' communication seems to play more of a role in affecting IPV involvement, especially for daughters. People who experience IPV want to communicate with their clinicians in private areas and they would prefer that the communication occur toward the middle of the interaction. On the other hand, some clinicians do not feel adequately trained to talk about IPV and they sometimes overemphasize disclosure of IPV by patients. Future research needs to continue to look at the clinician–patient interaction to include more IPV survivor voices as well as conduct more research about LGBTQ+ relationships and interpersonal violence.