The impact of intimate partner violence on psychological well-being: Predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and the mediating role of insecure attachment styles

Unveiling the traumatic impact of cyber dating abuse and offline intimate partner violence: exploring the mediating role of adult attachment

Cyber Dating Abuse (CDA) corresponds to a traumatic experience involving controlling and harassing behavior by a partner through modern technologies. This study aimed to assess the frequency of CDA, explore its connection to offline violence (specifically Intimate Partner Violence-IPV), and investigate attachment's mediating role in the relationship between various violence forms (cyber and offline) and trauma symptoms. Two groups were recruited for the study: one comprising 342 individuals who reported encountering offline IPV within the previous year and another group of 334 individuals who did not have such experiences. Both groups exhibited CDA, with the IPV-experienced group showing statistically significant higher prevalence. This supports literature indicating a relationship between online and offline violence. Additionally, attachment anxiety mediated CDA controlling, offline IPV, and subsequent PTSD symptoms, while attachment avoidance mediated only between offline IPV and PTSD symptoms. The findings seemed to validate the importance of acknowledging attachment as a mediator for PTSD, both in clinical practice and research.

Unveiling the Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship between Intimate Partner Violence Increases and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Mediation Analysis

(1) Background: Experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) can greatly impact victims' physical and mental health, often leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Emotion regulation has been identified in the literature as a factor that contributes to the manifestation of PTSD. Consequently, this study aims to investigate the relationship among the increase in IPV victimization (i.e., physical, psychological, sexual, and economic violence), emotion dysregulation, and PTSD symptoms. It has been hypothesized that emotion dysregulation may mediate the increase in IPV occurrence and PTSD symptoms. (2) Methods: 284 women (Mage = 40.92) exposed to IPV were recruited in Italy. IPV experience was screened using the Revised Conflict Tactic Scale questionnaire. A mediational analysis was performed using Rstudio. (3) Results: The findings corroborated the mediating role of emotion dysregulation: the relationship between the increase in IPV and PTSD symptoms appears to be mediated by emotion dysregulation. (4) Conclusions: These findings bolster the existing literature regarding the association between emotion dysregulation and PTSD, underscoring the important role of emotion dysregulation in trauma symptoms. This highlights the significance of prioritizing the treatment of emotion dysregulation as a focal point for intervention and support for those who have experienced IPV.

Structural Relationship Model of Basic Psychological Needs With Intimate Partner Violence: The Mediating Role of Gender Discrimination and Self-Esteem

Intimate partner violence (IPV) encompasses a range of abusive behaviors within intimate relationships. This study examines the structural relationships between basic psychological needs and IPV victimization among Iranian women, shedding light on the complex factors contributing to IPV and potential avenues for intervention. Data were gathered from a sample of 306 Iranian women who had experienced IPV, utilizing the Domestic Violence Questionnaire, the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The findings supported the appropriate fit of the proposed model and revealed that basic psychological needs exerted significant direct and indirect effects on IPV victimization, mediated through self-esteem and ambivalent sexism. These results provide valuable new insights into the complex dynamics of IPV victimization and hold promise for the development of targeted interventions aimed at preventing IPV and supporting the well-being of affected individuals. Furthermore, the interpretation of the findings has been revised to avoid any implication of victim-blaming, aligning with the aim of understanding and addressing the structural factors contributing to IPV victimization.

Attachment, Mental Health, and Alcohol Use by Men: The Mediating Role of Cumulative Lifetime Violence Severity

Cumulative lifetime violence (CLV) encompasses many different types and contexts of violence that occur across the lifespan and is associated with negative mental health outcomes in men; however, little attention has been paid to other factors that can influence these relationships such as attachment style. In this analysis, our focus is to understand how attachment styles directly and indirectly through CLV affect men's mental health, specifically depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and alcohol use. Data from 597 Canadian men with lifetime experiences of violence who participated in our national online survey focusing on violence and health were used for mediation analysis. Results indicated that CLV severity mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety (but not attachment avoidance) and depression, anxiety, PTSD, and alcohol use. Although attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance each directly affected depression, anxiety, and PTSD, neither directly affected alcohol use. Importantly, these findings provide the first evidence that the mechanism by which anxious attachment affects alcohol use is through CLV severity. These findings highlight the importance of anxious attachment on mental health outcomes for men who have experienced CLV.

Romantic attachment security buffers the effect of stress on anxiety in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background and objectives: The stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic spurred alarming levels of stress and anxiety in college students. It is important to identify factors that attenuate the negative effect of stress on anxiety. Framed by the attachment diathesis-stress process perspective, this study examined how the two dimensions of insecurity in romantic attachment-attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance-buffered the effect of stress on anxiety in a population of college students during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design and methods: The study employed cross-sectional and correlation designs and used an online survey to gather self-report data from a sample of 453 college students. Data were collected from March 15, 2020, to February 16, 2021. Results: Anxiety, stress, and the two insecurity dimensions were all mutually correlated with one another. Multiple regression analysis revealed that as the level of attachment anxiety increased, the association of stress and anxiety turned stronger. Conclusions: The findings suggest that targeting attachment insecurity may prove to be fruitful when helping college students effectively regulate stress to lessen levels of anxiety.

In the jaws of death: Surviving women's experience of male intimate terrorism

AIMS

To explore the meaning of male intimate terrorism, its evolvement and its impact on women from the perspective of female survivors.

DESIGN

The Vancouver School of Doing Phenomenology.

METHODS

Nine women were interviewed 1-3 times, in all 16 interviews. The interviews were from 68 to 172 min (average 87 min). Data analysis was done through interpretive thematic analysis.

RESULTS

For the surviving women, the intimate terrorism was a horrendous experience and they felt in the 'jaws of death'. The violence got worse over time from the entrapment phase where the men were obsessed with the women and monitored them, to the silencing phase, where the men silenced the women and the death phase, where the women felt as shadows of themselves. The women also described the awakening and recovery phases. The men's intense psychological aggression, marital rape and attempts to strangle them, were the gravest aspects of intimate terrorism and what contributed to them eventually feeling psychologically 'more than dead'.

CONCLUSION

What is most striking in the findings is how the fundamental human rights of the women were violated and how close to death the women came. Nurses need to be knowledgeable about the danger of intimate terrorism, how to screen for it and provide trauma-focused nursing care to women who have been subjected to such trauma.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

The women who were interviewed in the study are not patients, but they are part of the public.

Violencia de género y trastorno de estrés postraumático en mujeres peruanas

Se realizó un estudio descriptivo correlacional de corte transversal, que planteó determinar la asociación entre la violencia de género y el trastorno de estrés postraumático en mujeres peruanas. La muestra estuvo constituida por 105 mujeres que se atendieron en la División de Medicina Legal II de la provincia del Santa (Perú). Para recolección de la información se utilizaron dos instrumentos que fueron sometidos a validez y confiabilidad, la violencia de género se midió mediante un cuestionario constituido por 20 ítems, y el trastorno por estrés postraumático por un cuestionario de 16 ítems. Los resultados evidencian que el 56,2% de mujeres agredidas presentan violencia leve y el 61,9% no presentan síntomas de trastorno de estrés postraumático. Finalmente, se encontró alta asociación significativa entre la violencia de género y los trastornos de estrés postraumático.