People with disabilities experience mental health disparities and higher rates of violence compared to people without disabilities. Few studies have examined the psychological consequences of violence against people with disabilities, and whether they differ from those experienced by people without disabilities.
This study compared psychological consequences of violence among men and women with and without disabilities.
We analyzed data from the 2008-2014 waves of the National Crime Victimization Survey. Multiple logistic regressions were estimated to compare the psychological impact of violent crime on respondents without disabilities to those with disabilities, who comprised roughly 20% of the sample (n = 8,070). We stratified by gender to compare the effects of violence experienced by men and women.
Men with disabilities were more likely than men without disabilities to report severe distress (AOR = 2.07, p < 0.001), anxiety (1.79, p < 0.001), depression (2.32, p < 0.001), and anxiety and depression (2.34; p < 0.001), but were less likely to experience each outcome compared to women with disabilities. Men with disabilities had similar odds of adverse psychological outcomes compared to women without disabilities. Women with disabilities had higher odds of severe distress following violence compared to men without disabilities (3.90, p < 0.001) or women without disabilities (1.86, p < 0.001). Similarly, women with disabilities had higher odds of anxiety, depression, and anxiety and depression compared to men and women without disabilities.
Women with disabilities are at higher risk of negative psychological consequences resulting from violence compared to other gender-disability groups. Men with disabilities also experience worse outcomes relative to men without disabilities.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 16. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 December 2025.
All research outputs
#2,982,635
of 34,444,361 outputs
Outputs from Disability and Health Journal
#143
of 1,073 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#51,859
of 492,658 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Disability and Health Journal
#1
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,444,361 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 91st percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,073 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 492,658 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
