Influence of maladaptive personality traits on women's posttraumatic cognitions of IPV.

OBJECTIVE: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a problem for women worldwide. One factor that affects the severity of women's distress in the aftermath of IPV is how they make meaning of the violence they experienced. Posttraumatic meaning-making takes the form of 3 distinct posttraumatic cognitions: self-blame, other negative thoughts about oneself, and negative thoughts about the world. Women's posttraumatic cognitions in the aftermath of IPV are in part a function of personality. Research on personality and posttraumatic cognitions has focused primarily on the influence of normative personality traits, although maladaptive personality traits are more common in clinical assessment. One of the most common models of maladaptive traits is DSM-5's Alternative Model of Personality Disorder (AMPD), which contains 5 maladaptive variants of normative personality traits (Antagonism, Detachment, Disinhibition, Negative Affect, and Psychoticism). Although there is increasing research on the AMPD traits in general, there is limited research on the influence of these traits on women's response to IPV specifically. METHOD: In this study we examine the association between AMPD traits and posttraumatic cognitions of IPV in a sample of women exposed to IPV (N = 199) using a Bayesian approach to multiple regressions. RESULTS: Results suggest that IPV and Negative Affect were the primary influences on all 3 IPV-related posttraumatic cognitions and that other traits had differential effects depending on the type of posttraumatic cognition under analysis. CONCLUSIONS: These findings clarify our understanding of individual differences in posttraumatic response and have implications for the treatment of women exposed to IPV. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Association Between Intimate Partner Violence Subtypes and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Hazardous Substance Use.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common problem for women in the United States and is associated with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as hazardous use of substances like alcohol and drugs. However, not all subtypes of IPV (i.e., physical, sexual, and psychological) are equally predictive of PTSD and hazardous substance use. Although previous research suggests that psychological IPV has the strongest relative effect on PTSD symptoms and substance use, there is less research on IPV subtypes' cumulative effects. In this study, we examined the relative and cumulative effects of physical, sexual, and psychological IPV on PTSD symptoms and hazardous substance use in a sample of women in the United States recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 793) using bootstrapped multiple regression and configural frequency analyses. Results suggest that physical IPV had the most pronounced influence (medium-large effect sizes) on substance use across women, but that the cumulative effects of all three IPV subtypes were most closely associated with diagnostic levels of both PTSD and substance use at the level of groups of women. These findings clarify and extend previous research on the differential effects of IPV subtypes and provide directions for future research and clinical intervention.

Incremental effects of betrayal trauma and borderline personality disorder symptoms on suicide risk.

OBJECTIVE: Suicide is a problem on college campuses. One of the strongest predictors of suicide risk is symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Additional factors, such as trauma, also increase risk for suicide. One type of trauma that is especially insidious is 1 in which people are betrayed by others on whom they depend for support or protection (betrayal traumas). However, there is little research on the incremental effects of BPD symptoms and trauma with varying degrees of betrayal on suicide risk. METHOD: In this study, we examined the relative effects of BPD symptoms and traumatic experiences with varying degrees of betrayal on suicide risk in a sample of college students (N = 915) using a Bayesian approach to multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Results suggest that BPD symptoms and traumas with high and medium degrees of betrayal have incremental effects on suicide risk, although this effect differs by sex. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the utility of assessing history of trauma over and above BPD symptoms in the prediction of suicide risk and have implications for future research and clinical intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Influence of personality traits on college women's appraisals of intimate partner violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common traumatic stressor for young adult women and results in a number of problems for those who experience it. The appraisals women make of IPV influence the degree of distress they experience in the aftermath of IPV. Research suggests that personality traits may influence IPV appraisals, although there are relatively few studies of this. In this study, we examine the association between Five Factor Model personality traits (i.e., Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness) and appraisals of IPV in a sample of young adult women in college who experienced IPV (N = 241) using a Bayesian approach to multiple regression. Results suggest that Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism predicted different styles of appraisals over and above the effect of IPV severity. Study findings clarify previous research on the role of personality traits in the response to IPV and suggest directions for future research.