Intimate partner violence in neighborhood context: The roles of structural disadvantage, subjective disorder, and emotional distress

• We examine the influence of neighborhood disadvantage on IPV perpetration.
• We assess whether emotional distress influences the association between disadvantage and IPV.
• Disadvantage is associated with increased odds of IPV perpetration.
• Anger partially explains the link between neighborhood conditions and IPV perpetration.
• The effect of anger on perpetration depends on the level of disadvantage.

Most theoretical treatments of intimate partner violence (IPV) focus on individual-level processes. Some researchers have attempted to situate IPV within the larger neighborhood context, but few studies have sought to link structural- and individual-level factors. The current analyses fill a research gap by examining the role of anger and depression in the association between neighborhood disadvantage and IPV. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) and the 2000 Census, this study focuses on structural indicators of disadvantage as well as subjective disorder, and highlights the complex associations between neighborhood conditions, emotional distress, and IPV. Findings indicate that anger and depressive symptoms partially explain the association between neighborhood disadvantage and IPV. Additionally, the associations between disadvantage, disorder, and IPV depend on respondent’s level of anger. Results underscore the need to further consider the role of neighborhood factors (both objective and subjective) in relation to IPV, and also suggest the utility of introducing individual-level emotional measures to assess the circumstances under which neighborhoods matter most.