I'll catch you when you fall: Social safety nets and housing instability in IPV-exposed pregnant women.

<bold>Background: </bold>Intimate partner violence (IPV) has significant consequences for women's mental health, and it also compromises women's economic security and livelihood, including housing stability. There is a dearth of research, however, on protective factors in the link between housing instability and psychopathology in IPV-exposed women.<bold>Methods: </bold>The current study examines the protective role of social support in the association between housing instability and mental health (depression, posttraumatic stress) in a sample of pregnant, IPV-exposed women (N = 137).<bold>Results: </bold>Overall models for both depression and posttraumatic stress were significant (F = 6.42, p<.001; R2=16.3%; F = 15.09, p<.001; R2=31.0%, respectively). Housing instability was significantly associated with higher levels of depressed mood (β=0.20, p<.016), but not posttraumatic stress symptoms. Social support was significantly associated with lower levels of depressed mood (β=-0.17, p<.036) and posttraumatic stress (β=-0.38, p =0.001). The addition of the interaction term (housing instability*social support) resulted in a significant improvement in variance explained from the main effects model for depression (F = 4.90, p<.028, ∆R2=3.0%) and the interaction term was significant (β=-0.60, p=.029). An interaction effect of housing instability and social support on posttraumatic stress was not identified.<bold>Limitations: </bold>Although the current study is the first to examine protective factors in the relationship between housing instability and psychopathology in IPV-exposed pregnant women, data were cross-sectional and therefore directionality and temporality cannot be inferred.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Results suggest that housing instability may play a greater role in women's depressed mood than in their experience of posttraumatic stress symptoms, and the presence of social support may substantially ameliorate the effect of this adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]