Meaning in Life Following Intimate Partner Psychological Aggression: The Roles of Self-Kindness, Positive Reframing, and Growth

Psychological aggression is experienced by a large proportion of people in intimate relationships, and the negative impact of this experience has the potential to weaken one's sense of meaning in life. This study aimed to understand a mechanism through which the experience of psychological aggression in a past intimate relationship relates to less meaning in life. By applying self-compassion and meaning-making theory, we proposed that the experience of psychological aggression decreases one's ability to be kind toward oneself in times of suffering (i.e., self-kindness), which decreases positive reframing of the experience, which sequentially decreases growth from the experience, which in turn decreases meaning in life. Participants were 253 people who experienced psychological aggression in a past intimate relationship. Participants completed measures of psychological aggression, self-kindness, positive reframing, growth, and meaning in life. Results found that psychological aggression experienced in a past intimate relationship related to less meaning in life and that the serial mediation model proposed was supported. As such, the results indicate that greater psychological aggression experienced relates to less self-kindness, which in turn relates to less positive reframing, which is sequentially associated with less growth, which is associated with less meaning in life. The findings indicate the need for counseling and psychotherapies to bolster self-kindness in people who have experienced psychological aggression in a past intimate relationship. This is because levels of self-kindness might be depleted after experiencing psychological aggression and because self-kindness appears to support adaptive meaning-making processes.