Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 9, 2026

A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
Women's preferences for how health practitioners respond to coercive control by a partner: Open-ended survey
Kelsey Hegarty1, Laura Tarzia2, Elizabeth McLindon3
1PhD, Research Fellow, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic.
Background:
Coercive control by intimate partners is a major public health issue, negatively impacting women's health. Healthcare practitioners have a crucial role in responding yet often lack confidence to provide support.
Objective:
This study explored Australian women's preferences for supportive messaging from health practitioners when discussing coercive control.
Discussion:
An open-ended question in an online survey asked women who had experienced coercive control: 'What words could your health practitioner say that you would find helpful and supportive?'. Responses (n = 682) were analysed using directed content analysis. Findings align with two global frameworks: LIVES (Listen-Inquire-Validate-Enhance safety-Support) and CARE (Choice and control-Action and advocacy-Recognition and understanding-Emotional connection). Specific script health messaging is provided for healthcare practitioners to use in conversations with victim-survivors of intimate partner violence, including to counter coercively controlling tactics by abusive partners. Findings re-inforce the need for health practitioners to provide a sensitive first-line response, with tailored messaging to counteract affects of coercive control. Training and system support are needed to build health practitioner capacity to identify and respond to coercive control in the context of intimate partner violence.
Related Concept Videos
Relationship Formation
Obedience
Horney's Sociocultural Approach
Theory of Romantic Attachment in Adulthood
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...

