Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s11121-026-01944-w

Publication Title

Prevention Science

Volume

27

Issue

6

Pages

999-1013

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a recurring social problem that has individual, interpersonal, community, and societal level consequences necessitating interdisciplinary knowledge and a holistic, systemic approach for prevention. Recent research on IPV indicates the need to identify the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for IPV risk and subsequent consequences to inform mitigation solutions. Using a mixed-methods design, this rapid assessment research aims to address an existing gap by gathering primary data on the perceived risk and protective factors in addressing IPV through interviews, focus group discussions (n = 102), and surveys (n = 324) from a purposive sample of victim service providers (VSPs) in all US states, Washington, D.C., and five major inhabited territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands). The study findings indicate that existing risk factors have increased, alongside the emergence of new ones at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. We also identified 35 proactive protection measures that VSPs concocted during the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate IPV in their communities. Integrating insights from public health and social advocacy theoretical models, this study provides survivor-centered, community-level solutions to prevent IPV in both public emergencies and non-emergency situations. This research highlights the importance of recognizing the convergence of IPV risk factors during the COVID-19 pandemic, as factors such as the political climate, natural disasters, and health crises-including pandemics-can exacerbate existing risk factors, thereby underscoring the need for prevention efforts more than ever.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. 

Data Availability

Article states: "Data for this study are not available due to the need to protect the privacy of study participants."

ORCID

0000-0002-1010-7501 (Suh)

Original Publication Citation

Natarajan, M., Irvin-Erickson, Y., Suh, B., Nembhard, S., Smith, L., & Lu, Y. F. (2026). Understanding risk and protective factors of intimate partner violence: A public health and social advocacy approach. Prevention Science, 27(6), 999-1013. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-026-01944-w

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