Hormonal Alterations in Victimized Women Explained by Their Hostile Reactions in Coping with Couple Violence

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the dysregulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and its end products, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), in women with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization. These studies analyzed several coping styles, but they neglected to examine the use of violent strategies to confront IPV and the way these strategies affect HPA functioning. This latter proposal would be based on the gender symmetry model of IPV, which sustains that IPV is generally symmetrical, but that women’s violence tends to be a reaction to male violence. Hence, the main objective of the present study was to examine whether women’s violent reactions to IPV would significantly predict salivary cortisol and DHEA levels, as well as the cortisol/DHEA ratio (assessed through two saliva samples per day on four consecutive work days), controlling for the women’s prior IPV abuse, psychopathology, and demographic variables. Our data demonstrated that, specifically, psychological confrontation strategies predicted vespertine cortisol levels (adj R2 = .18, β = .447, p < .01) and the cortisol/DHEA ratio (adj R2 = .08, β = .322, p < .05), even after controlling several confounding variables, whereas physical and total confrontation in response to IPV did not predict these hormonal parameters.

Concentrations of Salivary Cortisol in Victims of Intimate Partner Violence According to the CIRCORT Database

“…Situations of stress, such as those triggered by IPV, are biologically regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) [5,6] where the hypothalamus activates in the pituitary gland the release of hormones, such as adenocorticotropin (ACTH), in the blood. This in turn stimulates the suprarenal cortex to release cortisol in the blood, a steroid hormone with a wide spectrum of activity in the body, which can lead to subsequent effects in the brain [7].…”