Leading intimate partner violence expert shares eye-opening data—and a call to action
Romance between teenagers isn’t always puppy love. In fact, 24 percent of adolescent girls have already experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) by the ages of 15 to 19. Yet, as new research by Bernadine Waller, MA ’10, PhD ’21, senior adjunct professor in the Adelphi University School of Social Work, demonstrates, little has been done to target patterns of violence that begin in adolescence.
Dr. Waller has dedicated her career to studying—and seeking to change—the way we respond to IPV. Her dissertation, which includes her groundbreaking theory “Constructed Agency,” and her subsequent article, “Racial inequities in homicide rates and homicide methods among Black and White women aged 25–44 years in the USA, 1999–2020: a cross-sectional time series study” (The Lancet, February 2024),1 illuminates the disproportionate rates of homicide among Black women in America, including IPV-related deaths.
Putting the World on Alert about IPV
Bernadine Waller, MA ’10, PhD ’21, senior adjunct professor in the Adelphi University School of Social Work
For Dr. Waller, prior scholarship and clinical expertise “laid the groundwork” for her most recent publication, “A global call for adolescent intimate partner violence prevention” (The Lancet, April 2024),2 co-authored with an international team of scholars.
The article lays out a sequence of IPV prevention strategies that can be implemented during adolescence, the “ideal time for prevention efforts as a period of ‘transformative change,’” creating a long-term chain reaction. “IPV prevention at this stage can solidify healthy relationship patterns that have benefits beyond the individual, with the potential for healthy intergenerational relationships over time,” the authors write.
These strategies are not designed solely for adolescent girls, either. Although limited data exists on IPV survivorship in boys, girls of color, and gender and sexual minorities, Dr. Waller and her co-authors flag the risks of overlooking violence suffered by these populations. Instead, they maintain, prevention strategies must “account for the nuance of gender, sexual orientation, and the complex dynamic of victimization and perpetration outcomes.”
With this article, Dr. Waller strives to direct more research attention toward an adolescent population that is not only huge and vulnerable, but global. “Much of the existing evidence—both for IPV prevention implementation and effectiveness—is drawn from high-income countries (HICs). In low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where prevalence is high and resources are often scarce, evidence is sparse or nonexistent,” she and her co-authors write.
In Dr. Waller’s eyes, this constitutes a serious oversight by the global research community. The experiences of millions of young people are going unnoticed, and potentially valuable IPV intervention methods, opportunities and strategies from LMICs are being understudied. As the paper notes, “More evidence on how prevention occurs in LMICs would strengthen cultural and developmental adaptations of existing interventions as well as inform the design of novel approaches.” Considering solutions from LMICs would allow community leaders to think beyond the individual level of care practiced in the United States, instead targeting school- and community-based delivery in their intervention models.
Dr. Waller also urges local leaders to leverage the preexisting infrastructure of community health workers, or “lay providers.” “There’s a need to train nonspecialists to deliver interventions,” she said, particularly when it comes to the adverse mental health connections strongly associated with IPV, such as depression, anxiety and suicidality. “If you have an administrative assistant who’s interested in learning how to deliver a brief intervention for depression, let’s train them to deliver it.”
The End Goal
Ultimately, the authors hope their work will result in increased adolescent IPV prevention and intervention efforts among both individual providers and community institutions, including religious congregations, primary care clinics and youth centers. And for Dr. Waller, it’s never too early to start modeling positive relationships and discussing healthy self-perception. “When young people have a healthier sense of self, they’re less likely to get involved in relationships that can dismantle that,” she said.
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¹Bernadine Y Waller, Victoria A Joseph, Katherine M Keyes (2024), Racial inequities in homicide rates and homicide methods among Black and White women aged 25–44 years in the USA, 1999–2020: a cross-sectional time series study, The Lancet, 403, Issue 10430, 935-945, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02279-1
²Johnson, Savannah L et al., A global call for adolescent intimate partner violence prevention, The Lancet Psychiatry, Volume 11, Issue 4, 238-239