[Psychopathological characteristics of female victims of intimate partner violence]

Psychopathological characteristics of female victims of intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence has caused much social alarm. Knowing the characteristics and problems of the female victims of this type of violence is necessary to be able to provide adequate psychological attention. This is the purpose of the present study. We studied a sample of 212 women who had been exposed to a situation of intimate partner violence, were remitted by diverse institutions of the Community of Madrid, and who were evaluated by the same procedure. The results contribute data about the social-demographic characteristics and the history of violence, which resemble those obtained in previous investigations. Regarding psychopathological variables, there was a lower incidence of posttraumatic stress and a higher incidence of depression. The presence of some concomitant variables was observed, especially problems of adaptation, low self-esteem, and dysfunctional posttraumatic cognitions.