Gender Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Its Relationships With Anxiety, Depression Symptoms and Suicide Behaviours in China

Objectives: To investigate the gender difference in Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and its association with mental health, examine social-demographic and health characteristics-specific relationships. Methods: This cross-sectional study evaluated lifetime prevalence of total, psychological, physical and sexual IPV victimization. Gender-stratified multiple logistic regressions were performed to examine associations between total and subtypes of IPV victimization and anxiety and depressive symptoms, suicide ideation and suicide attempt. Sensitivity analyses and stratification analyses were additionally conducted. Results: Among 21,824 participants (female: 44.7%), females reported higher total, psychological and physical but not sexual lifetime prevalence of IPV victimization than males. Specifically, male participants with psychological (OR = 3.62, 95% CI: 2.58–5.08 vs. OR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.39–2.51) or sexual (OR = 4.02, 95% CI: 2.61–6.20 vs. OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 0.91–2.35) IPV victimization presented greater odds of presenting possible anxiety than females; males with physical IPV victimization showed greater likelihood of with suicide ideation than females (OR = 9.95, 95% CI: 6.68–14.82 vs. OR = 4.61, 95% CI: 3.02–6.15). Conclusion: Prevention programs should be tailored to respond to IPV in various contexts to reduce the likelihood of and the detrimental effects of IPV.