Intimate Partner Violence of Rural Aging Women*

• Date: 01 December 2006
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00432.x
• Author: Pamela B. Teaster,Karen A. Roberto,Tyler A. Dugar
• Published date: 01 December 2006

Intimate Partner Violence of Rural Aging Women*

Pamela B. Teaster Karen A. Roberto Tyler A. Dugar**

Abstract: Although reports of intimate partner violence (IPV) decrease with age, a significant number of aging

women experience IPV in their relationships. The structure and culture of rural environments may inadvertently

conceal violence against aging women and inhibit prevention and treatment efforts. Guided by an ecological com-

munity framework, 3 focus groups involving 24 professionals working with victims of IPV in rural Kentucky and

in-depth interviews with 10 aging rural women who had experienced IPV were conducted to examine the trajectory

of, and community responses to, violence in late life. Findings revealed multiple interacting influences on IPV of

aging women in rural areas including the women’s families and resources, culture and locality, religion, community

support, and government entities.

Key Words: aging women, family gerontology, family violence, intimate partner violence, rural families.

Because, if I can touch one person’s life it will

make it all worthwhile, well, of all these . . . years

of being abused in every way, my nose has been

broken like seven times, my eardrums have been

burst, and if I can reach one person, it would be

worth all that. (Louise, aged 61)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) of women is a com-

plex social phenomenon that cuts across all age, eth-

nic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic categories.

Although reports of IPV decrease with age (Rennison,

2001), the problem does not completely dissipate.

Limited national age-aggregated data available sug-

gest that there are a significant number of midlife

and older women (collectively referred to in this

paper as aging women) who experience domestic

violence. The 1992 National Survey of Women

indicated that 1.4 million women between the ages

of 45 and 64 were physically abused by their spouses

(Plichta, 1993, as cited in Older Women’s League,

1994). Of the 7,450,260 IPV victimizations against

women recorded between 1993 and 1999 as part of

the National Crime Victimization Survey, 118,000

(2%) victimizations were committed against women

aged 55 or older (Rennison & Rand, 2003).

Comparative statistics for women aged 60 and older

are more difficult to ascertain primarily because the

elder abuse literature typically does not single out

older partners as a separate study group. Data from

a national survey of Adult Protective Services (APS),

typically the agency of first report of the mistreat-

ment of vulnerable adults, revealed that in the 10

states that track this type of information, approxi-

mately 11% of the substantiated reports of abuse of

persons aged 60 and older with a known perpetrator

involved a spouse or intimate partner (Teaster,

Dugar, Otto, & Mendiondo, 2006). Researchers

and practitioners alike acknowledge that these esti-

mates represent only the most overt cases.

Aging women living with violence may be even

more invisible in rural communities where geo-

graphic isolation, economic constraints, strong social

and cultural pressures, and lack of available services

significantly compound the problems they may con-

front when seeking support and services to end the

violence (Few, 2005). The purpose of this research

was to further understanding of IPV in rural com-

munities by examining responses to violence from

the perspective of aging women, as well as those

entities intervening in their cases (e.g., APS case-

workers, women’s shelters, law enforcement).

*Support for this study was provided by the University of Kentucky Center for Research on Violence Against Women. An earlier version of this paper was presented at

the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC, 2004.

**Pamela B. Teaster, Associate Professor, 306 Wethington Health Sciences Building, 900 S Limestone, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0200

(pteaster@uky.edu). Karen A. Roberto, Professor and Director, Center for Gerontology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (kroberto@vt.edu). Tyler A. Dugar,

ABD, 306 Wethington Health Sciences Building, 900 S Limestone, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0200 (tdugar@uky.edu).

Family Relations, 55 (December 2006), 636–648. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2006 by the National Council on Family Relations.