Coping with the Antecedents of a Violent Episode Explains More Variance than Coping with the Violent Episode: Support for Event-Based Approaches to Violence

Abstract

The effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) impact victims more negatively than perpetrators. However, as current intervention programs do not provide satisfactory solutions to the problem, there is a growing need for interventions based on novel approaches. In this study, the relationships between proximal antecedents, violence victimization, coping, and psychological symptoms were examined, focusing on the “hot moment” of IPV. The study sample consisted of 205 married women who were victims of IPV. Data were collected using the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, the Proximal Antecedents to Violent Episodes—Victim Form, the Intimate Partner Violence Strategies Index, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Personality Belief Questionnaire–Short Form, the Two Dimension Social Desirability Scale, and a demographics form. The results revealed that proximal antecedents concerning interaction disagreements significantly predicted both IPV and psychological symptoms after controlling for pathological personality beliefs. They positively preceded violence via interactions with post hoc planned coping strategies. The results also revealed that the temporal conceptualization of coping should occur before IPV following the occurrence of proximal antecedents, offering a new look at the victimization process. This perspective provides a delicate synthesis of event-based behaviorist perspectives of IPV explanations and survivor theory for coping with IPV.