Understanding the role of self-esteem and emotion dysregulation in victims of intimate partner violence.

Abstract

Self-esteem and emotion dysregulation appear to be important factors in the psychological well-being of trauma survivors. On the one hand, self-esteem may act as a shield against the psychological consequences of traumatic experiences; on the other hand, emotion regulation can affect the way individuals deal with post-traumatic affects (e.g., fear, terror, shame, and guilt). Consequently, the objective of this study was to investigate the role that emotion dysregulation and self-esteem play in the well-being of a sample of women after the traumatic experience of intimate partner violence (IPV). This study involved 282 women (meanage = 41.55, SD = 10.52) who experienced IPV in the last year. Conditional process analyses and Johnson-Neyman analysis for regions of significance were performed. The results showed that emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between post-trauma affectivity (i.e., fear, terror, shame and guilt) and survivors' well-being. Furthermore, self-esteem negatively predicted lack of well-being and acted as a moderator of the relationship between emotion dysregulation and lack of well-being. In this regard, through the Johnson-Neyman analysis for regions of significance, it was possible to identify a cut-off value above which the relationship between emotion dysregulation and lack of well-being became non-statistically significant. This study contributed to understanding the role that emotion dysregulation and self-esteem play in the well-being of IPV survivors. In this regard, clinical implications will be presented.