Attachment Style and Early Maladaptive Schemas as Mediators of the Relationship between Childhood Emotional Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence |
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Authors: | Lauren E Gay Hilary G Harding Joan L Jackson Erin E Burns Brittany D Baker |
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Institution: | 1. Psychology Department , The University of Georgia , Athens , Georgia , USA lgay15@uga.edu;3. Psychology Department , The University of Georgia , Athens , Georgia , USA |
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Abstract: | Theoretical and empirical research suggests possible pathways between women's experiences of childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and later intimate partner violence victimization (IPV-V) and perpetration (IPV-P), including attachment style and early maladaptive schemas. This study tested a model examining the unique mediating effects of insecure attachment and early maladaptive schemas on the relationship between CEA and IPV-V (n?=?396) or IPV-P (n?=?409) in college women. Contrary to hypotheses that both attachment style and maladaptive schema endorsement would mediate the relationship between CEA and IPV-V and IPV-P, regression analyses indicated the disconnection/rejection schema domain was the only significant mediator between CEA and IPV-V (p = .01). This same relation held for childhood emotional abuse and IPV-P (p < .001). These findings provide preliminary clinical utility for examining schema endorsement, the use of schema therapy (Young, Klosko, &; Weishar, 2003 Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S. and Weishar, M. E. 2003. Schema therapy: A practitioner's guide, New York: NY: Guilford. Google Scholar]), or both with women who have emotional abuse and IPV histories. |
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Keywords: | attachment style childhood emotional abuse early maladaptive schemas intimate partner violence perpetration victimization |
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