Attachment and mentalization in Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most common forms of violence against women (WHO, 2012). IPV has been examined from a range of theoretical perspectives, one of those being attachment theory, identified as a way to assess several psychosocial risk factors for violence (Mahalik et al., 2005). In the previous literature, the child`s exposure to violence in the family resulted as a major predictor of subsequent exposure to IPV victimization (Widom, et al., 2008). Research on abused and traumatized samples has shown high frequencies of unresolved/disorganized attachment in adults. Attachment disorganization is associated with major problems of affect regulation and mentalizing deficits (Lyons Ruth & Jacobvitz, 2016). This study has two aims: To analyze the relationship between childhood trauma and victimization in adulthood; To investigate attachment and mentalization ability in order to identify specific mentalizing and attachment profiles of women IPV victims. A sample of forty women, recruited through anti-violence centers, were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI, George et al., 1984) and completed the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ, Fonagy et al., 2016). The hostile/helpless coding system (Lyons-Ruth & Melnick, 2004), the Complex Trauma Questionnaire (ComplexTQ, Vergano et al., 2015), and the Reflective Functioning Scale (RFS, Fonagy et al., 1998) were applied to AAI transcripts. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Coding was conducted by two trained coders, and certified as reliable in the use of the AAI. The protocols were double coded for RFQ, ComplexTQ and RFS. Results will be discussed in terms of clinical and theoretical implications.