Emotional abuse among Lesbian Italian women: Relationship consequences, help-seeking and disclosure behaviors

Abstract

Objective: The study aims to provide a preliminary examination of the psychometric properties of the Italian version of Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse (MMEA) and aims to investigate consequences of emotional abuse for the relationship, help-seeking and disclosure behaviors, among a sample of lesbian women. Methods and participants: One hundred and sixty-five lesbian volunteers filled in a self-report questionnaire including a measure of emotional abuse (MMEA) investigating the consequences of the abuse for the relationship and their disclosure and help-seeking behaviors. Results: Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed the four-factor structure of the MMEA among the sample, and indicated MMEA as a valid tool to measure the phenomenon among Italian lesbian women. As for the consequences of the emotional abuse, most of the participants continued their relationship after the abuse and chose not to talk about the episodes to anyone. When opening up about the abuse, participants mainly reported it to close friends and psychologists and/or psychotherapists. These results have important clinical and policy implications as they provide some indications to be taken into account by mental health professionals and policymakers working with abused lesbian clients.

The Help-Seeking Process in Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence: a Systematic Review

“…All the seven studies surveying informal sources and providing quantitative data found friends and family (i.e., parents, relatives, or siblings) to be in the top three sources participants turned to when they sought help. Friends, in particular, were listed as the most common contacted source in six (Renzetti, 1989;Merrill & Wolfe, 2000;McClennen et al, 2002;Sylaska & Edwards, 2015;Ngo, 2018;Battista et al, 2020) out of seven of these, ranging from 25% (Sylaska & Edwards, 2015) to 85% (Merrill & Wolfe, 2000). The studies providing qualitative descriptions (Irwin, 2006;Donovan & Hester, 2011;Hardesty et al, 2011;Guadalupe-Diaz, 2013;Oliffe et al, 2014;Freeland et al, 2018) corroborated this aspect as well: among participants who sought help, turning to informal sources was often the most common choice.…”

“…While marginalization is taken into consideration as a barrier (Grigsby & Hartman, 1997), its conceptualization is single-layered, and does not account for possible (Scherzer, 1998;Merrill & Wolfe, 2000;McClennen et al, 2002;St. Pierre & Senn, 2010;Sylaska & Edwards, 2015;Rausch, 2016;Battista et al, 2020) Semi-structured interviews 5 (Hardesty et al, 2011;Walters, 2011;McDonald, 2012;Oliffe et al, 2014;Bloom et al, 2015) Multi-method approaches 4 (Renzetti, 1989 (surveys, unstructured Renzetti, 1992) 63 gay men, self-identified as victims of SSIPV HSM: Description of use of formal and informal sources along with perceived helpfulness (data available). Most contacted sources: friends (65%), relatives (56%), psychiatrist (52%), psychologist (51%).…”

“…Eight of the studies (Renzetti, 1989;Scherzer, 1998;Merrill & Wolfe, 2000;McClennen et al, 2002;St. Pierre & Senn, 2010;Sylaska & Edwards, 2015;Ngo, 2018;Battista et al, 2020) provided quantitative data about the sources of help their participants contacted (e.g., percentages or number of respondents; see Table 2 for a summary of the most contacted sources). Moreover, six different studies (Irwin, 2006;Donovan & Hester, 2011;Hardesty et al, 2011;Guadalupe-Diaz, 2013;Oliffe et al, 2014;Freeland et al, 2018) did not provide detailed breakdowns, but nevertheless provided a description of the participants' experiences when selecting a source of help.…”

“…In the studies that provided quantitative data, frequency of contact varied between 6% (Sylaska & Edwards, 2015) and 78% (Scherzer, 1998), but all of them (Renzetti, 1989;Scherzer, 1998;Merrill & Wolfe, 2000;McClennen et al, 2002;St. Pierre & Senn, 2010;Sylaska & Edwards, 2015;Ngo, 2018;Battista et al, 2020) found this category to be among the top three contacted sources. In this case as well, the studies providing qualitative descriptions mostly corroborated this finding (see Table 2).…”

“…In this case as well, the studies providing qualitative descriptions mostly corroborated this finding (see Table 2). Two studies (Merrill & Wolfe, 2000;Battista et al, 2020) found gay and lesbian agencies to be contacted somewhat often as well. Other formal sources were contacted sparingly, some of them standing out among the least contacted sources.…”