The mediating role of response-focused emotion regulation strategies in intimate partner violence across the stages of change

Abstract

Intimate partner violence against women is a pervasive and significant problem around the world that causes victims to suffer grave mental and physical health issues. The Stages of Change or SOC model has been used in recent study to examine the stage of change in female victims as a potential predictor of their readiness to end their relationship. This study's objective was to analyse emotion-focused coping strategies used by female victims to deal with emotions arising from trauma, violence or abuse, according to the SOC model. The sample comprised 200 victims of gender violence who had received formal assistance in Spain. The standardised test was administered in face–to-face interviews. According to the women's SOC, the findings showed differences in the use of emotion-focused coping strategies and indicated that emotion regulation efforts were greater in the early SOC- especially in precontemplation and action—of the continuum towards action. Emotion-focused coping strategies were activated to regulate either positive or negative emotions, again in accordance with participants’ stage of change, with negative affectivity predominating in the early stages (precontemplation and contemplation), and positive affectivity having a greater presence in the later ones (action and maintenance). A series of mediation analyses demonstrated that although negative emotions immobilise female victims in the precontemplation stage, they also facilitate effective coping in the action stage, thereby helping to reduce the emotional impact of violence.