Evaluación mediante el Inventario MCMI-III de mujeres víctimas de maltrato psicológico por parte de su anterior pareja

Abstract

IntroductionIn psychological gender violence the aggressor uses a repeated conduct that injures progressively the emotional well-being of his victim. It is a variant of mistreatment of difficult expert evaluation, causing significant evidentiary problems to the courts. We reviewed the symptoms presented by a group of women who report psychological abuse by the MCMI-III. We report a standardized tool in the evaluation of abused victims to apply in a judicial context, unlike previous studies performed in other environments for evaluation. Material and methodsThere have been selected 30 women whose initial motive of denunciation consisted exclusively of psychological abuse from her previous couple. We have recorded the most significant socio demographic data from the evaluated victims as well as the characteristics of the abuse that they denounce by means of a semi constructed interview. On the other hand, it has administered the MCMI-III inventory to each of the interviewed ones. Analysis of the variables under study was performed by SPSS for Windows (version 17.0). ResultsWe pointed out the predominance of the compulsive personality, followed by dependent and histrionic; the high average punctuation obtained in social desirability, which is decreasing as it extends in time the mistreatment; the association between long-term psychological mistreatment and depressive and negativist personality. At last, low impact on clinical syndromes of long-term psychological violence. ConclusionsThe chronic abuse can concern personality characteristics causing long-term emotional consequences since they generate symptoms capable of modifying cognitive schemes of the victims. The results obtained in this study indicate that the clinical syndromes, especially anxiety and depression, don’t show significant differences according to duration of abuse. Significant differences in the MCMI-III profile victims of long-term abuse are reflected in the personality scales. It is considered of great interest to research in this area as well as to incorporate the severity of abuse as a variable of study.