Spence, NSpangaro, JCameron, JHegarty, KHasan, HKoziol-McLain, JaneMcMahon, TWalsh, JZwi, A2025-05-162025-05-162025-05-08BMC Public Health, ISSN: 1472-698X (Print); 1471-2458 (Online), Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 25(1), 1701-.1472-698X1471-2458http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19206Background: Coercive control is gaining increasing recognition as a form of intimate partner violence (IPV). Refugee women in countries of settlement are vulnerable to experiencing controlling behaviour. Interventions that support identification of controlling behaviour are an important step in enabling help-seeking for refugee women and prevention of further violence. Methods: The Safety and Health After Arrival (SAHAR) study tested a culturally tailored IPV screening and response strategy for refugee women accessing Australian settlement services. All women accessing the study sites were asked about controlling behaviours using the ACTS screening tool, which also asks about actions causing fear, threats, and physical abuse. Findings reported here include consultations with a lived experience panel and services, screening results, focus group data and manager interviews. Results: Of 312 women asked the ACTS questions by caseworkers in four settlement services, 90 women (29%) gave responses indicating IPV with controlling behaviour being the most frequently reported (78/90). Qualitative data indicate that, following consideration of language and diverse understandings of controlling behaviour, settlement service caseworkers were able to identify experiences of harmful forms of control. Conversations about control between caseworkers and women were prompted, and awareness about non-physical coercion increased. Conclusion: Despite challenges due to differences in language, interpretation and cultural norms, this study found it feasible to enquire about controlling behaviour with refugee women accessing settlement services, along with other forms of IPV.© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Coercive controlControlling behaviourIntimate partner violenceRefugeeScreening42 Health SciencesViolence ResearchWomen's HealthViolence Against WomenBehavioral and Social SciencePrevention5 Gender Equality1117 Public Health and Health ServicesPublic Health4202 Epidemiology4203 Health services and systems4206 Public healthHumansRefugeesFemaleAdultCoercionAustraliaFocus GroupsIntimate Partner ViolenceMass ScreeningMiddle AgedYoung AdultQualitative ResearchInterviews as TopicJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1186/s12889-025-22886-y