Analysis from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has found nearly a quarter of women have experienced emotional abuse by a partner.
New analysis of data from the ABS's personal safety survey, which was conducted in 2016, estimated that 23 per cent of women (2.2 million) and 16 per cent of men (1.4 million) had been emotionally abused by a current or former partner since they turned 15.
Emotional abuse, also known as coercive control, has been defined as a form of domestic and family violence where perpetrators intimidate, isolate and manipulate a victim-survivor to make a victim afraid and dependent on their abuser.
Childhood victim-survivors at higher risk of further abuse
According to the analysis, those who were victim-survivors of abuse as children were at much higher risk of being emotionally abused as adults.
ABS director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics, Will Milne, said the new analysis showed single parents, people with intellectual or physical disability and those experiencing financial stress were more likely to experience partner emotional abuse.
"Women and men who experienced childhood abuse or witnessed parental violence as a child were about twice as likely to experience partner emotional abuse in their adulthood," Mr Milne said.
"The rate was highest for women who were both physically and sexually abused as a child."
At the time of the survey, 6.1 per cent of women said their current partner had emotionally abused them, while 18 per cent said they had been abused by a former partner.
Men were nearly as likely to experience abuse by a current partner with 5.2 per cent reporting they had been emotionally abused by a current partner and 12 per cent by a previous partner.
Emotional abuse survivors more likely to experience DV
New analysis from the Bureau found that survivors of emotional abuse were more than eight times as likely to have experienced domestic violence.
More than half of women, or 58 per cent, and just over a quarter of men, or 26 per cent said they were survivors of partner violence and emotional abuse.
Women who experienced emotional abuse were also 16 times more likely to have been victim-survivors of sexual violence by a partner.
