CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 123Intimate Partner and Family ViolenceAttachment and Relationship DynamicsSexual Assault and Victimization Studies

Adult attachment styles, destructive conflict resolution, and the experience of intimate partner violence

Open access
Bonache, Helena, Gonzalez-Mendez, Rosaura, Krahé, Barbara·2019·Journal of Interpersonal Violence
DOI 10.1177/0886260516640776
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Although there is ample evidence linking insecure attachment styles and intimate partner violence (IPV), little is known about the psychological processes underlying this association, especially from the victim's perspective. The present study examined how attachment styles relate to the experience of sexual and psychological abuse, directly or indirectly through destructive conflict resolution strategies, both self-reported and attributed to their opposite-sex romantic partner. In an online survey, 216 Spanish undergraduates completed measures of adult attachment style, engagement and withdrawal conflict resolution styles shown by self and partner, and victimization by an intimate partner in the form of sexual coercion and psychological abuse. As predicted, anxious and avoidant attachment styles were directly related to both forms of victimization. Also, an indirect path from anxious attachment to IPV victimization was detected via destructive conflict resolution strategies. Specifically, anxiously attached participants reported a higher use of conflict engagement by themselves and by their partners. In addition, engagement reported by the self and perceived in the partner was linked to an increased probability of experiencing sexual coercion and psychological abuse. Avoidant attachment was linked to higher withdrawal in conflict situations, but the paths from withdrawal to perceived partner engagement, sexual coercion, and psychological abuse were non-significant. No gender differences in the associations were found. The discussion highlights the role of anxious attachment in understanding escalating patterns of destructive conflict resolution strategies, which may increase the vulnerability to IPV victimization.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/0886260516640776

Cites

60 of 60 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The link between attachment and sexual IPV victimization was mediated by the use of destructive conflict resolution strategies.

    “Finally, two studies examined other variables accounting for the relationship between attachment and sexual IPV victimization showing that such link was mediated by the use of destructive conflict resolution strategies (Bonache et al., 2016) and that insecure attachment fully mediated the pathway by which childhood maltreatment leads to sexual IPV victimization (Smagur et al., 2018).”

    From Exploring Relationships: A Systematic Review on Intimate Partner Violence and Attachment (2018) · cites this paper as Bonache et al., 2016

  • The use of destructive conflict strategies explains the pathway by which insecure attachment leads to psychological IPV victimization.

    “Finally, the use of destructive conflict strategies has been showed to explain the pathway by which insecure attachment leads to psychological IPV victimization (Bonache et al., 2016, 2017).”

    From Exploring Relationships: A Systematic Review on Intimate Partner Violence and Attachment (2018) · cites this paper as Bonache et al., 2016

  • Emotional IPV and negative interaction cycles are overlapping phenomena on a continuum where more severe behaviors would be attributed to emotional IPV.

    “In addition, it is important to consider the two as overlapping phenomena on a continuum where more severe forms of behaviors would be attributed to that of emotional IPV (e.g., intentionally aggressive, or hostile behaviors and controlling actions) due to IPV behaviors often being seen as maladaptive conflict resolution behaviors in more severe forms (Bonache et al., 2019;Shortt et al., 2010).”

    From The relationship between emotional intimate partner violence and other forms of violence: A metaanalytic review. (2024) · cites this paper as Bonache et al., 2019

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Bonache, H., Gonzalez-Mendez, R., & Krahé, B.
Affiliations
  • Universidad de La Laguna (ES)
  • Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
  • University of Potsdam (DE)
Corresponding author
Bonache, Helena
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2016-04-01
Volume
34
Issue
2
Pages
287-309
ISSN
  • 0886-2605 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-6518
DOI
10.1177/0886260516640776
OpenAlex
W2319681241
Cited by
123
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1
FWCI
4.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Interpersonal Violence (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • publish.UP (University of Potsdam) (submittedVersion)
  • Scientia Insularum Revista de Ciencias Naturales en islas (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
Keywords
adult attachment styles, intimate partner violence, sexual coercion, psychological violence, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, conflict engagement, romantic partners, victimization, gender differences
MeSH terms
Intimate Partner Violence, Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Object Attachment, Surveys and Questionnaires, Spain, Students, Universities, Negotiating, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review