Rates and Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence Among Service Members and Veterans

Those who have served in the military are at heightened risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), defined as threatened or actual physical, sexual, or psychological abuse from a current or former romantic partner, relative to the general population. However, no known efforts have compared patterns of IPV use (i.e., perpetration) and IPV experience (i.e., victimization) disaggregated by current military affiliation (i.e., service member or veteran), nor have they compared patterns of unidirectional IPV (either IPV use or experience only) versus bidirectional IPV (i.e., concurrent IPV use and IPV experience) by military affiliation. Using dyadic data from United States service members, veterans, and their spouses who participated in the Millennium Cohort Family Study-the only Department of Defense-wide longitudinal study on military families-we compared rates and frequencies of IPV use, IPV experience, and IPV patterns between service members (n = 2,301) and veterans (n = 1,877). An estimated 37.6% of service members and 47.9% of veterans had any IPV experience; 36.4% of service members and 50.8% of veterans had any IPV use. Veterans had higher rates of IPV experience (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.10, 1.85]) and IPV use (aOR: 1.67; 95% CI [1.29, 2.18]). After adjusting for bidirectionality, veterans had higher rates of bidirectional IPV (aOR: 1.62; 95% CI [1.22, 2.15]) and IPV use (aOR: 2.19; 95% CI [1.29, 3.27]), but not IPV experience. Veterans had an increase in the expected frequency of IPV experience by 47% (adjusted incidence rate ratios [IRR] = 1.47; 95% CI [1.19, 1.81]) and IPV use by 65% (IRR = 1.65, 95% CI [1.35, 2.00]), relative to service members. These findings underscore the value of investment in IPV prevention and treatment upon separation from military service, and the need for targeted programming and resources to address bidirectional IPV among both partners in a dyad.