Main and Moderating Influence of Temperament Traits on the Association Between Intimate Partner Violence and Trauma Symptoms

Abstract

Trauma symptoms are common among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), although not all women who experience IPV develop trauma symptoms. One of the factors that may influence whether women develop trauma symptoms upon exposure to IPV is temperament. In this study, we examined the main and moderating effects of temperament traits (constraint, negative emotionality, and positive emotionality) on the association between IPV and trauma symptoms in a sample of young adult women (N = 654) using a Bayesian approach to multiple linear regression to address significant non-normality in the data. Our results indicated that each temperament trait incrementally predicted trauma symptoms over and above the effects of IPV and other negative life events. Results further indicated that both negative emotionality and constraint moderated the influence of IPV on trauma symptoms such that IPV was positively associated with trauma symptoms at high levels of these traits but not at low levels. However, these effects differed depending on the type of violence experienced (physical, sexual, or psychological). These results extend previous research on the influence of temperament traits to the context of IPV; this underscores the importance of incorporating temperament in the study of IPV, as well as in the study of traumatic stress more generally.