Patterns and Timelines of Coercive Control and Associations With Health and Help-Seeking
Tracks
Ballroom 2: In-Person Only
| Tuesday, November 24, 2026 |
| 12:00 PM - 12:20 PM |
| Ballroom 2 |
Overview
Elizabeth McLindon, University of Melbourne & Royal Women's Hospital
Three Key Learnings
1. Coercive control appears to be a core organizing feature of IPV, with psychologically abusive tactics presenting first, enabling an environment where physically and sexually abusive behaviours can be introduced later and maintained.
2. Survivors whose coercive control pattern involved multiple abuse types, reported the highest odds of poor health and help-seeking behaviour.
3. Researchers should analyse composite patterns of abuse with associated health issues and help-seeking; while practitioners are urged to enquire about all abuse types to holistically assess health impacts and help-seeking behaviours for individual women.
Speaker
Dr Elizabeth McLindon
Research Fellow & Counsellor Advocate
University of Melbourne & Royal Women's Hospital
Patterns and timelines of coercive control and associations with health and help-seeking
Presentation Overview
Coercive control describes a pattern of behaviours that cause entrapment and a range of biopsychosocial harms. Previous research has reported on the health and help-seeking impacts of individual abuse types, missing the influence of multiple abuse types concurrently perpetrated against a survivor and the timeline of that abuse. This study employed a comprehensive measure of coercive control patterns to explore timelines, health and help-seeking associations in a national Australian sample. An online cross-sectional survey of 1,026 women survivors of recent intimate partner violence (last five years), included measures of abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, reproductive and technological), health (general health, disability, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, hopelessness, suicidal ideation and self-esteem), and help-seeking (formal and informal sources). Analysis involved multivariable logistic regression to calculate the odds of reporting health and help-seeking outcomes for those exposed to different coercive control patterns in the last 12-months. Most survivors had experienced multiple abuse types, all co-occurring with psychological abuse. Survivors whose coercive control pattern involved five abuse types reported the highest odds of poor health and help-seeking behaviour. Researchers should analyse composite patterns of abuse with associated health issues and help-seeking; while practitioners are urged to enquire about all abuse types to holistically assess health impacts and help-seeking behaviours for individual women.
Biography
Dr Elizabeth McLindon is a Research Fellow in the Sexual Abuse and Family Violence (SAFE) program at the University of Melbourne, the Deputy Director of the Centre for Family Violence Prevention at the Royal Women's Hospital, and a senior counsellor/advocate at the Royal Women’s Hospital Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA House). Liz’s research aims to transform health system responses to victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence. Liz has a background in social work and psychology. (80 words)