Coping styles, dysfunctional schemes and psychopathological symptoms related to emotional dependence on the aggressor partner

Abstract

Coping styles, dysfunctional schemes and psychopathological symptoms could be factors of vulnerability that increase the probability that a person develops emotional dependence on an aggressive partner. Delimiting the risk factors is fundamental for its prevention and treatment. Consequently, the main objectives of the present study were to analyze the relationship between the above-mentioned factors, as well as the mediating role of the first three in the relationship between emotional dependence and received violence. The sample was made up of 657 women from the clinical and general population, with ages ranging from 18 to 66 years of age (M= 23.38, SD= 8.24). The results reflected the predominance of inadequate coping styles, such as desiderative thinking, social isolation and self-critical, psychopathological symptoms of depression, anxiety, interpersonal sensibility, obsession-compulsion and paranoid ideation, as well as abandonment and subjugation schemes. These factors also explained part of the relationship between emotional dependence and staying in violent relationships.