ABSTRACT

Peritraumatic emotions are implicated in the elevated health risks associated with interpersonal trauma, but they have not been widely studied in the context of intimate partner abuse (IPA). To address this, community women with divorce histories completed IPA measures, along with an interview to assess posttraumatic stress symptoms and both DSM-IV A2 emotions (yes/no) and other emotions (free response) experienced during worst incidents of IPA. Anxiety/fright, helplessness, and horror were highly prevalent. Lexical analysis of the words women used to describe their other emotions revealed that anger and shame were the most prevalent, followed by dissociation and sadness. As predicted, chronicity of direct assault and frequency of verbal/emotional abuse showed significant, positive correlations with peritraumatic dissociation, and peritraumatic shame showed significant, positive correlations with current symptoms of effortful avoidance. Also, a negative correlation between frequency of dominance/isolation abuse – an indicator of coercive control – and peritraumatic anger approached statistical significance. Although limited by the cross-sectional, retrospective design, results contribute to the understanding of peritraumatic emotions in the context of IPA, and motivate continued efforts to examine their roles in the elevated health risks of interpersonal trauma.

摘要

创伤后情绪与人际创伤相关的健康风险升高有关，但尚未在亲密伴侣虐待 (IPA) 的背景下进行广泛研究。为了解决这个问题，有离婚历史的社区妇女完成了 IPA 措施，以及评估创伤后压力症状和 DSM-IV A2 情绪（是/否）和其他情绪（自由反应）在 IPA 最严重事件中经历的访谈。焦虑/恐惧、无助和恐惧非常普遍。对女性用来描述其他情绪的词的词法分析表明，愤怒和羞耻是最普遍的，其次是分离和悲伤。正如预测的那样，直接攻击的长期性和言语/情感虐待的频率显示出与围创伤分离的显着正相关，和围创伤后的羞耻感与当前努力回避的症状呈显着正相关。此外，支配/孤立滥用的频率（强制控制的指标）与围创伤期愤怒之间的负相关接近统计显着性。尽管受到横断面、回顾性设计的限制，但结果有助于理解 IPA 背景下的围创伤情绪，并激励继续努力检查它们在人际创伤健康风险升高中的作用。