(PS12-C56) A Longitudinal Investigation of the Cumulative Impact of Recurrent Intimate Partner Violence Experiences on Emotion Dysregulation

Intimate partner violence (IPV) disproportionately affects the health and wellbeing of women (CDC, 2021). One in three U.S. women have experienced IPV in their lifetime and one in four have experienced negative physical or mental health IPV-related outcomes (Smith et al., 2018). One potential outcome of IPV is emotion dysregulation, supported by cross-sectional findings indicating that greater IPV severity is associated with greater dysregulation (Simpson et al., 2021). Although IPV is often recurrent and escalates in severity over time (Cochran et al., 2011), few studies have examined the prospective effects of recurrent IPV experiences on emotion dysregulation. The current study employed a longitudinal design to examine the cumulative impact of recurrent IPV experiences on emotion dysregulation among young adult women. We hypothesized that greater cumulative IPV experiences would be associated with greater emotion dysregulation within and across participants.

Participants were 491 young adult community women (M_age = 21.74, SD = 2.23) who were predominantly White (n = 301; 61.3%) and/or African American/Black (n = 172; 35.0%). Participants completed self-report measures of IPV (CTS-2; Straus et al., 1996) and emotion dysregulation (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) every four months for 28 months. Sum scores were created for each wave to reflect past-four-month IPV frequency and emotion dysregulation. Next, we created cumulative IPV scores by adding all previous IPV sum scores to the current wave’s score (e.g., cumulative IPV at wave 2 was the sum of waves 1 and 2).

Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) techniques were used to examine within- and between-person differences in the association between cumulative IPV and emotion dysregulation across 28 months. As expected, greater cumulative IPV experiences predicted greater global emotion dysregulation across the study period at the within- (B = 0.03, SE = 0.01, p</em> = .029) and between-person (B = 0.13, SE = 0.03, p</em> < .001) levels. Furthermore, greater cumulative IPV experiences positively predicted specific aspects of emotion dysregulation, including lack of emotional awareness (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p</em> = .003), lack of emotional clarity (B = 0.01, SE = 0.004, p</em> = .003), non-acceptance of emotional responses (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p</em> < .001), and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behaviors (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p</em> = .007) at the between-person level, and limited access to emotion regulation strategies (within: B = 0.01, SE = 0.004, p</em> = .035; between: B = 0.04, SE = 0.01, p</em> < .001) and difficulties controlling impulsive behavior (within: B = 0.01, SE = 0.003, p</em> = .014; between: B = 0.03, SE = 0.01, p</em> < .001) at both the within- and between-person levels.

Findings highlight the cumulative impact of recurrent IPV experiences across multiple aspects of emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation may impact individuals’ ability to seek support, safety plan, and pursue personal and/or professional goals. Clinicians and women’s shelter advocates should consider helping women experiencing recurrent IPV identify and address emotion dysregulation by utilizing evidence-based techniques, such as DBT, and if possible, intervene early to prevent the accumulation of IPV, in service of their wellbeing.