Focused on empowering women with the knowledge they need to make more informed decisions about their relationships and enhancing the effectiveness of IPA interventions and prevention strategies, this qualitative research project explored the experiences of victim-survivors (VS) of intimate partner abuse (IPA) in the time before the abusive behaviours became entrenched - the earliest warning signs (EWS) of IPA.


The findings revealed that all the participants had gut reactions ("the tremor") to their partner's inappropriate behaviours in the early stages of their relationships. Although they felt the tremor, the participants did not recognise their partner's behaviour as EWS of abuse. The results identified a model of the EWS of IPA illustrating an interaction between the tremor, three domains of EWS, and three surrounding layers of disguise—physiological programming, psychological grooming, and gender socialisation—that made the EWS almost imperceptible to the VS.


This research provided a unique examination of the interaction between sociological, psychological, and physiological components of the recognition of the EWS of IPA. These interconnected layers of the model of EWS of IPA mean interventions require complex and multi-dimensional approaches that recognise the significance of the psychological and sociological factors that lay a foundation for abusive relationships.