Can Emotion Dysregulation Explain the Association Between Attachment Insecurities and Teen Dating Violence Perpetration?

Abstract

Attachment theory provides important insight regarding the etiology of teen dating violence perpetration (TDV-P). Attachment insecurities have been associated with TDV-P, but the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. Furthermore, as of now, studies have failed to explore whether the relation between attachment insecurities and TDV-P varied according to its forms (i.e., psychological, physical or sexual) or to the perpetrator’s gender. This study aimed to investigate if emotion dysregulation mediates the association between attachment insecurities and different forms of TDV-P among girls and boys. Adolescents ( Mage = 16 years; n = 3,214; 60% girls) were recruited from a one-stage stratified cluster sample of 34 high schools in Quebec, Canada. Path analyses with probit regression models were conducted separately for girls and boys. Attachment anxiety and avoidance were associated with more emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation was, in turn, associated with higher probabilities of physical TDV-P in girls and psychological TDV-P in girls and boys. Surprisingly, emotion dysregulation was not associated with sexual TDV-P. Attachment anxiety remained directly related to higher probabilities of perpetrating all forms of TDV. These findings support the hypotheses set forth by attachment theory and highlight the utility of this theory to understand and potentially prevent TDV-P. Practitioners should more specifically address adolescents’ attachment anxiety, as it seems more related to TDV-P. Finally, this study underscores the necessity of considering gender and specific forms of TDV-P to understand the association between attachment insecurities, emotion dysregulation, and TDV-P.

Romantic Attachment and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrated by Men: The Role of Affect Dysregulation and Gender Hostility

“…Thus, men who reported more attachment insecurities were more likely to have difficulties regulating their emotions, which in turn was related to their perpetration of more acts of psychological, physical and, sexual IPV. These results are consistent and extend past studies (Brassard et al, 2014;Guzman-Gonzalez et al, 2016;Théorêt et al, 2020) and attachment theory (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2016) in examining three forms of IPV in a clinical population. When men high in avoidance feel threatened (e.g., feeling criticized), they may resort to maladaptive affect regulation strategies such as the tendency to deny their emotions and to avoid contact with their partner via the deactivation of their attachment system.…”

“…Research has shown that romantic attachment insecurities (i.e., attachment-related avoidance and anxiety) are a robust correlate of IPV perpetration (see Velotti et al, 2022 , for a review). Another well-documented risk marker associated with IPV perpetration is affect dysregulation (AD; Pollard & Cantos, 2021 ; Théorêt et al, 2020 ). A few studies have identified hostility toward women (HTW) as a correlate of IPV perpetration ( Gildner et al, 2021 ; Parrott & Zeichner, 2003 ).…”

The role of moral neutralization of aggression and justification of violence against women in predicting physical teen dating violence perpetration and monitoring among adolescents in Switzerland

“…Across the body of more recent studies, the direction of gender differences was similar to the meta‐analytic review by Wincentak et al. (2017), showing higher rates among female adolescents (e.g., Ruel et al., 2020; Théorêt et al., 2020). However, some studies revealed higher rates among male adolescents (e.g., Karsberg et al., 2018).…”

Emotion dysregulation and couple relationship satisfaction of clinical couples: An actor‐partner interdependence model

“…In recent years, attention has been given to the ramifications of emotion dysregulation in couples. Studies with non‐clinical samples suggest, partners' emotion dysregulation significantly leads to more perceptions of hostile criticism (Klein et al, 2016), higher physical and psychological dating violence (Halmos et al, 2018; Théorêt et al, 2020), greater depression, anxiety and sexual distress (Dubé et al, 2019), lower empathy toward partner (Florean & Păsărelu, 2019), negative affect and conflict interactions (Ben‐Naim et al, 2013), decreased relationship satisfaction (Mazzuca et al, 2019; Omidi & Talighi, 2017; Riahi et al, 2020), as well as lower relationship quality and intimacy (Tani et al, 2015).…”