Prevalence and Predictors of Reproductive Coercion and Abuse by a Partner Among a National Population Sample in Australia

Reproductive coercion and abuse (RCA) involves the use of violence, deception, or threats to undermine another person's reproductive autonomy. Largely perpetrated against women by their male intimate partners or other close family members, RCA is harmful to health and well-being. Despite this, it is under-researched, with conceptually sound, robust data lacking globally. The present study addresses this gap within the Australian context by analysing data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, a national, longitudinal, representative community survey of over 56,000 women. For this study, we focused on women born in 1973 to 1978. Our aims were to identify the prevalence of partner-perpetrated RCA (both pregnancy-preventing and pregnancy-promoting), explore sociodemographic variables from early adulthood that may predict RCA later in life, and examine associations between RCA and other forms of violence. We found that around 4.5% of our sample had experienced RCA by age 43 to 48 years perpetrated by a current or former partner. We found evidence of associations between financial insecurity, smoking status, and being partnered at age 18 to 23 years and experiences of RCA by age 43 to 48 years. We also found associations between RCA and experiences of physical intimate partner violence, sexual intimate partner violence, and harassment. A history of childhood physical or sexual abuse was also predictive of lifetime RCA victimisation by age 43 to 48 years. Our findings suggest that RCA may affect a considerable proportion of women in Australia. Despite this, RCA has received little attention in policy or practice. Our findings also shed light onto potential risk factors that could be addressed early to reduce the likelihood of experiencing RCA later in life, as well as highlighting the relationship between RCA and other forms of violence. These findings have important implications for risk assessment, identification, and response.