Gender-Based Violence and its Long-Term Impact on Women’s Mental Health in Andalusia (Spain): Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract

The purpose of this research has been to test the relationship between having survived intimate partner violence situation and the presence, in the long term, of clinical symptoms and psychological distress. This is a cross-sectional study in which 105 women participated, 54 who had suffered a experience of gender-based violence more than three years ago (average = 11.74 years) and 51 who had never suffered violence from their partner. Participants completed a semi-structured interview, and instruments to assess self-esteem, maladjustment, perceived stress, social support, resilience along with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III). We found differences between both groups in self- esteem, maladjustment, social support, perceived stress, and differences in most of the MCMI-III scales, highlighting a depressive and paranoid personality pattern. It was found that, having had a childhood experience of gender-based violence, it predicted greater pathology and emotional distress. Social support is revealed as a protective factor for anxiety disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. The years outside of violence did not predict any of the variables. Intimate partner violence should not be addressed as just another type of interpersonal violence, but rather as a type of violence that presents differential characteristics that produce different consequences, and therefore requires specific treatment.