1. Why do Victims Keep Returning to Abusive Intimate Partners
Jieying Zhou
Department of Psychology
Marshall University
Abstract
Materials and Methods
Conclusions
The results to this study suggest that not only females, but also males can be physically abused by their partner.
It was found that there are significant correlations between the scales measuring degrees of being a victim of partner abuse and scales of insecure attachments to the partner.
The attachment pattern with the partner can be affected by the ones with parents.
The causes of why some are more likely to be victims of partner abuse are several fold and complex. These relations must be kept in mind when dealing with victims of partner abuse.
Purpose: The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2010) states that more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Most of the victims keep returning back to the abusive partners. The purpose of this study is to examine the following three questions: a) why would an individual keep on returning to an abusive relationship, b) how do attachment patterns enter into abusive relationships, and c) what individual characteristics make some more likely than others to be targets of abuse.
Methods: The 480 participants filled out questionnaires measuring degrees of partner abuse, as well as measures of attachments and clinical issues, adverse childhood events, and measures tapping their own histories of abusive behaviors.
Results: It was found that there are significant correlations between the scales measuring degrees of being a victim of partner abuse and scales of insecure attachments to the partner, partner addiction, their own partner abusive behavior, and several scales of the ACIQ.
Conclusions The causes of why some are more likely to be victims of partner abuse are several fold and complex. These relations must be kept in mind when dealing with victims of partner abuse.
Participants: There were 624 participants in the study. Students who participated in the study were able to get extra points for their introductory psychology class. The age range of all the participants was Since 34 participants did not fill out the questionnaire correctly and were unable to analysis, 23 participants’ could not be used because of experimenter error, and 64 participants did not bring the questionnaire back the second day, the rest of 491 participants’ questionnaires which were turned in correctly were used for the study. Participants were including 302 females, 175 males, and 7 participants who indicated invalid gender choices.
Procedure: Students completed all the questionnaire two weeks in a row at the same time. In the second week, their heights and weights were measured and recorded on their answer sheets. A research assistant monitored students during the testing time after all participants gave informed consent. Students completed the ACIQ one week and the other battery of tests in a second week in a counterbalanced order.
Material: The questions on the ACIQ were asked of the participants to describe relationships they have with their partner, mother, and father (Lindberg & Thomas, 2011). “Partner” was defined as the relationship most significant in their life, or the relationship the participant was currently in. The questions inquiring about the partner were left blank if the participant had not been in a relationship. The scales of Fake Good and Fake Bad are also included, and social desirability is not generally an issue as measured by the Marlow Crowne scale (Fugett, Thomas, & Lindberg, in press). There are 29 ACIQ scales. The 29 ACIQ scales average .79 coefficient alphas (Lindberg & Thomas, 2011). Factor analyses of the 29 scales showed that they load on clinical issues and attachment figures rather than attachment styles, as have been previously assumed by traditional attachment researchers (Lindberg & Thomas, 2011).
Discussion
Strengths
1.) This investigation is not gender specific. Both males and females were asked the same questions and their responses were analyzed and compared.
Weaknesses
1.) This investigation can only show correlations and cannot be used to infer cause and effect relationships.
Results
Introduction
Emo
Phys
Sex
Ace
.30
.28
.21
I emo ab
.65
.55
.51
I phys ab
.48
.71
.46
I sex ab
.31
.33
.36
Mixedm
.16
.24
Mixedf
.17
Mix Part
.34
.25
Partadb
.54
Am Part
.42
.29
.37
Anger
.38
Anxiety
.19
.12
.23
Av. Part
.40
Jealousy
.18
Peer
-.13
-.03
.08
Denial
Sec Part
-.14
-.09
Control
.27
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2010) states that more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence (IPV) which so many people are suffering can be divided into different types, such as, physical violence, sexual violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2010) also mentions that nearly 3 in 10 women and 1 in 10 men in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner and reported at least one impact related to experiencing these or other forms of violent behavior in the relationship (e.g., being fearful, concerned for safety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, need for health care, injury, contacting a crisis hotline, need for housing services, need for victim’s advocate services, need for legal services, missed at least one day of work or school).
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a crime with high rates of repeat victimization (Walby and Allen 2004). Repeat victimization occurs when an individual or place experiences the same type of crime multiple times (Farrell 1992, 1995; Farrell and Buckley 1999; Sherman, Gartin, and Buerger 1989). It is hard for victims in abusive relationships to get away from it completely. Most of the victims cannot stop themselves keeping returning back to the abusive partners. To help more victims get away from what they are facing, it is important to look for the reason what make them some more likely than others to be targets of abuse. The reason may be common among the victims; it can be attachment patterns, individual characteristics, and etc.
I hypothesize that there are some correlations among the reason why an individual keep on returning to an abusive relationship, how attachment patterns enter into abusive relationships, and individual characteristics make some more likely than others to be targets of abuse.
References
Black, M.C., Basile, K.C., Breiding, M.J., Smith, S.G., Walters, M.L., Merrick, M.T., Chen, J., & Stevens, M.R. (2011). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Farrell, Graham ‘‘Multiple Victimisation: Its Extent and Significance.’’ International Review of Victimology 2:
Farrell, Graham ‘‘Preventing Repeat Victimization.’’ Pp in Building a Safer Society: Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention, edited by Michael Tonry and David P. Farrington. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Farrell, Graham and Alistair Buckley ‘‘Evaluation of a UK Police Domestic Violence Unit Using Repeat Victimisation as a Performance Indicator.’’ The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 38:42-53.
Lindberg, Marc & Thomas, Stuart (2011): The Attachment and Clinical Issues Questionnaire (ACIQ): Scale Development, the Journal of Genetic Psychology, 172:4,
Lindberg, M.A., Fugett, A., & Thomas, S.W., (2012) Comparing Measures of Attachment: “To whom one turns in times of stress,” Parental warmth, and partner satisfaction. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 173:1,
Sherman, Lawrence W., Patrick R. Gartin, and Michael E. Buerger ‘‘Hot Spots of Predatory Crime: Routine Activities and the Criminology of Place.’’ Criminology 27:27-55.
Walby, Sylvia and Johnathan Allen Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey (Home Office Research Study, 276 ed.). London, UK: Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.
Note: correlations greater than r..17 were p <