Emotional dependency and abuse in female victims of intimate partner violence

Abstract

The main objectives of this paper have been to analyze the emotional dependency in battered and non-battered women when they are involved in lasting relationships with the Partner’s Emotional Dependency Scale (SED; Camarillo et al., 2020). The relationship was examined between emotional dependency and clinical and personality variables (anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and impulsivity), and cut-off points were established to detect the risk of intimate partner violence according to emotional dependency. The sample consisted of 257 people, 144 battered women in treatment and 113 non-battered women with the same demographics. Battered women scored much higher than non-battered women on all dimensions of emotional dependency. In turn, emotional dependency in battered women was significant and positively associated to depression, anxiety, and impulsivity and negatively to self-esteem. Some cut-off points have been suggested to detect the risk of intimate partner violence according to emotional dependency. Lastly, implications of this study for future research in this field are commented upon.