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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2019

Ángel Romero-Martínez ,
Concepción Blasco-Ros ,
Manuela Martínez  and
Luis Moya-Albiol
Ángel Romero-Martínez*
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Concepción Blasco-Ros
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Manuela Martínez
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Luis Moya-Albiol
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ángel Romero-Martínez. Universitat de València. Departamento de Psicobiología. 46010 Valencia (Spain). E-mail: Angel.Romero@uv.es
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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.

Keywords

cortisoldehydroepiandrosteroneintimate partner violencevictimization
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 22 , 2019 , E40
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2019 

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Footnotes

This project was supported by a 2018 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation. The Foundation accepts no responsibility for the opinions, statements and contents included in the project and/or the results thereof, which are entirely the responsibility of the authors. Moreover, this work was supported by the Universitat de València (UV-INV-AE18-780697).

How to cite this article:

Romero-Martínez, A., Blasco-Ros, C., Martínez, M., & Moya-Albiol, L. (2019). Hormonal alterations in victimized women explained by their hostile reactions in coping with couple violence. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 22. e40. Doi:10.1017/sjp.2019.43

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