THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPOUSE ABUSE, DISSOCIATION AND POSITIVE COPING STYLE ON SELFEFFICACY

Objective: Self-efficacy plays a key role in recovery from spouse abuse. The focus of many psychological interventions for domestic violence victims designs to improve their self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of psychological spouse abuse, dissociation and positive coping style on self-efficacy. Methods: For this, 335 married participants (124 men and 211 women) were recruited and asked to complete the Index of Spouse Abuse, Self-efficacy Scale, Dissociative Experiences Scale Korean Version and Positive Coping Style Scale. Multiple regression analyses were performed to identify the impact of psychological and physical spouse abuse, dissociation and positive coping style on self-efficacy. Results: First, psychological abuse was associated with self-efficacy in spouse abuse. However, physical abuse was not associated with self-efficacy in spouse abuse. Second, with the increase of spouse abuse experience, dissociation also increased but increasing dissociation was associated with decreasing self-efficacy. Thus, dissociation mediated the relation between psychological spouse abuse and self-efficacy. Third, seeking social support strategies did not change the relation between psychological spouse abuse and self-efficacy. But problem-focused strategies tended to change the relation between psychological spouse abuse and self-efficacy. These results suggest that an in-depth therapeutic approach is required for victims in an abusive relationship and the importance of psychological spouse abuse can be major concern. These research findings can be useful to recover impaired self-concept of clients complaining of psychological spouse abuse.