Research summary
Intimate partner violence and relationship distress with a romantic partner are significant social and public health issues. They can lead to physical illness, mental health issues, and even death. These situations can also affect children, perpetuating negative relationship patterns across generations. As Canada Research Chair in Relationship Distress and Intimate Partner Violence, Dr. Audrey Brassard is working to better understand these problems so we can prevent them..
She and her research team are integrating state-of-the-art research methods with established community partnerships to gather rigorous, rich data from large participant pools. This includes perpetrators of intimate partner violence as well as new and long-term couples representing diverse cultural, sexual and gender backgrounds. Ultimately, their research will provide much-needed data to evaluate and improve prevention and treatment programs aimed at reducing relationship distress and intimate partner violence.