Association between Emotional Abuses and Mental Disorder in Women: A Web-based Internet Survey in Southern China

Background: Physical violence against intimate partners has been widely studied, whereas the understanding of emotional abuse and neglect in Chinese are limited. Method: This study was conducted as a web-based internet survey of legal married females participants (N=747) in a Chinese province. The assessment included experience of emotional abuse and neglect from intimate partner, measures of emotional maltreatment, social anxiety symptoms and general psychopathology. Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scales were used to assess generalized anxiety and depression, respectively. Results: The cross-sectional survey revealed that 214 (27.02%) wives had psychologically abuse by their husbands; among these emotional abuse victims, 141 (60.25%) females suffered from generalized anxiety and 162 (69.23%) had various levels of depression. Personality clashes and great pressure were the top major reasons of intimate emotional abuse. Logistic regression analyses revealed that emotional abuse was independently associated with anxiety (OR=2.73 CI:1.93-3.87 p<0.00) and depression (OR=2.87 CI:1.96-4.22 p<0.01) in women. Age was associated with depression (OR=0.30 CI:0.17-0.63, p<0.01). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that emotional abuse was associated with a significant increased anxiety and depressive symptoms. This pilot study is to encourage further investigation large sample on the prevalence of intimate emotional abuse against women in China.