Difficulties in emotion regulation, separation anxiety, and impulsivity as predictors of women's intimate partner violence experiences

Objective: The first purpose of the current study was to examine the typology of intimate partner violence experiences of community sample women via two-step cluster analysis. The second purpose was to investigate how difficulties in emotion regulation, separation anxiety, and impulsivity would predict the clusters of intimate partner violence including both victim and perpetrator roles. Method: A total of 253 female participants who were married/in a relationship currently or during the past year were included in the statistical analyses. Participants completed online a Demographic Information Form, the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale-2, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire, and the Short Form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Results: The two-step clustering method indicated that violence experiences of women in the community who were mostly victims of psychological violence fell into two different clusters of low and moderate violence experiences. The total scores of difficulties in emotion regulation and separation anxiety symptoms increased the likelihood of being in the moderate violence cluster while the total score of impulsivity was not related to violence clusters. Conclusion: Violence experience of women in the community is a complex phenomenon that simultaneously includes victim and perpetrator roles and is experienced at different levels. Findings underlined the role of women's affect-regulation difficulties and their feelings towards significant others and intimate relationships in their violence experiences.