Does the Life History Calendar Method Facilitate the Recall of Intimate Partner Violence? Comparison of Two Methods of Data Collection

Respondents' recall ability may compromise the validity of their report of lifetime experience of intimate partner violence (IPV). This study compared two interview methods: a commonly used structured interview method and the Life History Calendar (LHC) method, which combines a visual calendar with a semistructured interview schedule to help respondents gain better access to long-term memory. Comparison of two studies conducted with samples drawn from the same sampling frame found that, as hypothesized, the LHC method elicited more reports of lifetime IPV—especially abuse that occurred early in respondents' lives—than a structured interview survey method.