The Influence of Perpetrator’s Substance Use on Survivor’s Use of Protective Strategies: Findings from a Daily Diary Study

Background: Men’s substance use influences their intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and women’s assessment of their IPV-related risk. Women actively protect themselves using various strategies to stop, prevent, or escape conflict in their relationship. This study examines whether perpetrators’ use of substances is related to women’s daily protective strategy use. Methods: Women ( N = 216, M age = 40.7 years [SD = 13.1], 34.7% Black, 26.9% White) experiencing physical or repeated psychological IPV were recruited from the community and completed once-daily app-based surveys for 90 days, in which they reported their partner’s alcohol, cannabis, and other drug use, and their own protective strategy use. Generalized linear mixed models were used to test study hypotheses. Results: Partner substance use was associated with increased likelihood of women’s same-day creating distance, preparing to leave, weapons-related, and placating strategy use ( p s < 0.001). Partner’s alcohol use alone was related to increased likelihood of same-day creating distance, preparing to leave, and placating strategy use ( p s ≤ 0.006), alcohol–cannabis co-use was related to increased likelihood of same-day placating strategy use ( p < 0.001), and any other drug use was related to increased likelihood of same-day creating distance and placating strategy use ( p s ≤ 0.002). Partner’s cannabis use alone was related to decreased likelihood of using preparing to leave strategies the next day ( p = 0.04), whereas any other drug use was related to increased likelihood of next-day creating distance, preparing to leave, and placating strategy use ( p s ≤ 0.02). Discussion: Partner substance use is a contextual factor that may have important implications for IPV intervention programming and formal safety planning efforts with women experiencing IPV.