Dissociative Symptoms in Women with Histories of Intimate Partner Victimization: A Focus on Coercive Control

Abstract

ABSTRACT Identifying and contrasting different patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) (e.g. situational couple violence, coercive controlling violence) is useful for understanding IPV and its connections with health. Applying this approach to dissociation may be fruitful, given theoretical perspectives that predict a specific connection between coercive controlling violence and dissociative symptoms. To address this, community women with divorce histories (N = 188) completed measures to identify patterns of IPV victimization in prior relationships (no direct violence, situational couple violence, coercive controlling violence), and to quantify recent dissociative symptoms and number of depressed days, for comparison. Contrary to predictions, the predicted odds of recent dissociative symptoms did not differ between women who experienced situational couple violence versus coercive controlling violence. However, the latter group had greater odds of recent dissociative symptoms, but not depressed days, compared to women with no histories of direct violence. Further, a continuous measure of coercive control was uniquely associated with increased odds of dissociative symptoms. This study provides preliminary empirical support for a connection between coercive controlling violence and dissociative symptoms, compared to women without histories of direct violence. This deserves further attention given the strong theoretical rationale for this link, and the importance of dissociation for mental health.