Schema domains, communication, and the use of violent behaviors in young couples
The use of intimate partner violence is an important phenomenon given its high prevalence and the related consequences. To understand this phenomenon, personality variables and dysfunctional communication patterns has been associated with violent behaviors between intimate partners. The current study examined the mediating role of conflict communication in the association between Young’s early maladaptive schemas and intimate partner violence. Seventy-five young couples recruited at the university completed an online questionnaire including the french versions of the Young schema questionnaire – short form, 3rd edition (YSQ-S3; Young, 2005) and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1996). Each couple then participated, in a laboratory setting, to two videotaped conflict-resolution interactions. The coding of these interactions was made with the french version of the Interaction Dimensions Coding System (Julien, Chartrand, Markman, & Lindahl, 1991). Regression analyses show that for men the Impaired limits domain is associated with the psychological and physical violence perpetration, and that this association is mediated by hostility behaviors during conflict-resolution interactions. Also for men, the Disconnection and rejection domain is associated with hostility. For women, the Disconnection and rejection and Impaired autonomy domains are associated with the use of physical violence for women, but not with communication. The Overvigilance domain is associated with withdrawing during conflict resolution for women only. Hence, men’s violent behaviors seem related to narcissism and lack of self-control, and women’s violent behaviors appear to be related to an affective insecurity.