About the project

Drawing upon longitudinal data from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) study, this research looks at the barriers to mothers leaving partners who use violence. The persistence of conflict or abuse experienced by mothers over the antenatal to 9-month period, and over the 54-month to 8-year period was examined. For these two periods, the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) at the start of the period and the relationship breaking up during this period was explored.

Key findings include:

• mothers with fewer financial resources are     less able to leave partners who use violence. This suggests a lack of     financial resources is a barrier to victims of IPV becoming safe
     
     
• younger mothers, mothers who lack access     to a car, mothers with poor physical health, mothers who are not part of a     community, mothers who place high importance on maintaining cultural     traditions (who are largely non-Europeans), and mothers whose partners     have low education or earnings may also be less able to leave partners who     use violence
     
     
• consistent with previous studies, this     study finds within-relationship conflict and IPV are commonly experienced     by New Zealand mothers
     
     
• mothers who report conflict or IPV in one     survey wave are quite likely to report it again in the following survey     wave (one to several years later). However, a considerable proportion of     such mothers report no IPV in the following wave, either because their     partners stopped using violence or their relationship ended

Suggested citation

Sin, Isabelle, Shannon Minehan, Janet Fanslow, and Alayne Mikahere-Hall. 2024. "Who can leave a partner who uses violence?” Motu Working Paper 24-01.Motu Economic and Public Policy Research. Wellington, New Zealand. DOI:10.29310/WP.2024.01

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