Violent Victimization and Women's Mental and Physical Health: Evidence from a National Sample

Abstract

This study employs a sample of 7,700 women drawn from the Survey of Violence and Threats of Violence AgainstWomen and Men in the United States 1994 to 1996 to test hypotheses regarding the effects of violent victimization on women's mental and physical health. Violent victimization consisted of physical and sexual assaults, the lifecourse stage in which victimization first occurred, and the nature of the victimoffender relationship. Outcome variables were depressive symptomatology, concern for current safety, self-assessed health, and the occurrence of heavy episodic drinking. Findings suggested that physical and sexual-assault victimization had only modest effects on health outcomes, with the severity of physical assault having the most consistent association with poor health. The victim-offender relationship appeared most important for depressive symptomatology, with more symptoms being reported when the offender was someone known to the victim. No evidence was found that assaults first occurring in, say, childhood or adolescence, were more consequential for health than those first occurring in adulthood. The experience of child maltreatment appeared to be as important as other forms of victimization in presaging poor health outcomes.