Intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms in women: cognitive schemas as moderators and mediators

In this study the role of cognitive schemas as moderators and mediators between intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms was examined. The sample consisted of 312 women who had suffered an abusive relationship. Participants completed measures of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, maladaptive cognitive schemas (disconnection and rejection, autonomy, and other-directedness), and depression. The evidence for a moderation effect was low and mainly restricted to schemas of the impaired autonomy domain. In contrast, the results supported mediational models in which violence was associated to the cognitive schemas, and these in turn were associated to depressive symptoms. Mediation was partial, with the schemas of the disconnection and rejection domain explaining most of the association between violence and depression. Finally, several explanations for these findings are examined, and their implications for the concept and measure of the cognitive schemas are discussed.