One in five mums of young kids experience domestic violence and most don't speak up

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-06-16 15:00

Australia; VIC

Photo by Bethany Beck on Unsplash

One in five mothers have experienced intimate partner violence but two-thirds haven't disclosed it to a GP or mental health professional, according to a Victorian study. The researchers followed up with 1500 mums 10 years after birth to survey them about their mental health and recent experiences with intimate partner violence. The researchers say one in four participants reported depressive, anxiety or posttraumatic stress symptoms, with two-fifths of the mothers reporting serious mental health concerns also reporting domestic violence. They say fewer than half the women with mental health concerns had spoken to their GP about it.

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conference: PLOS ONE

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Organisation/s: Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), The University of Melbourne

Funder: The Maternal Health Study has been supported by three project grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, 191222 awarded to SB; 433006 awarded to SB and KG, and 1048829 awarded to SB, DG and KH); grants from the William Buckland Foundation, ANZ Trustees Medical Research Fund and Australian Rotary Health, awarded to SB; the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence (NHMRC, 1116690) awarded to KH and SB and the Stronger Futures Centre of Research Excellence (NHMRC 1198270) awarded to SB and DG. Research conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is supported by the Victorian Government Operational Infrastructure Program. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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