Motivations and Justifications of Intimate Partner Violence among Young Black Women Attending HBCUs

This study examined the motivations and justifications of IPV engagement among 125 Black women (Mage = 20.32, SD = 1.68) attending Historically Black Colleges/Universities. Two research aims assessed: 1) perceived motivations and acceptable justifications for IPV; and 2) relationships between the frequency of violence and contextual variables. We hypothesized that more IPV experiences would result in more behavior justification and increased sexual risk behavior. Additionally, we expected more IPV experiences would correlate with more psychological violence, and constrained mate availability. Findings indicate significant relationships between increased IPV and justification of violence in relationships and increased sexual risk behavior. Furthermore, more IPV experiences resulted in increased psychological violence and less perceived mate availability. The Discussion and Implications sections emphasize the need to focus on motivations, justifications, and context of IPV involvement as a way to design culturally responsive prevention and intervention programming for Black women on HBCU campuses