Table 4.

Implications for Clinical Practice, Research, Policy, and Legislation.

Implications for Clinical Practice • Coercive control exposure is linked to PTSD and depression, suggesting long-term mental health implications that require mental health support • Trauma-informed interventions are needed to support long-term recovery • A stronger link between coercive control and PTSD in domestic violence service/shelter settings suggests a need to include short-term trauma-informed mental health care in crisis response services • Clinicians need to be trained and supported so that they can provide effective short- and long-term care. Implications for Research • Coercive control is difficult to capture in most commonly used psychometric measures and more comprehensive measures of coercive control need to be used in primary studies • Research into the development of more specific coercive control measures is needed • Qualitative research approaches may be well suited to address the nuances in behaviors, such as verbal threats, to determine if they occur within the context of situational couple violence or coercive control. • There is lack of empirical studies that have investigated the relationship between coercive control and CPTSD, and more research is needed • More research in developing countries is needed • More research with gender diverse samples is needed Implications for Policy and Legislation • The mental health impacts of coercive control need to be considered in policies and legislations surrounding the criminalization of coercive control Funding for trauma-informed mental health care that supports the long-term recovery of those who have been exposed to coercive control is needed

Note. IPV = intimate partner violence; PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder; CPTSD = complex post-traumatic stress disorder.