Risk factors for traumatic bonding and associations with PTSD symptoms: A moderated mediation

Traumatic bonding, defined as attachment to a perpetrator of intimate partner violence (IPV), offers one explanation as to why many people with abusive romantic partners do not break off these relationships. But what individual-level risk factors make some victims of IPV more likely than others to develop traumatic bonding toward their partners? What is the nature of the potential association between traumatic bonding and PTSD symptoms?

A path model tested the potential roles of childhood maltreatment and attachment insecurity as risk factors for traumatic bonding, as well as the potential association between traumatic bonding and PTSD symptoms, in a high-risk sample of 354 participants in current abusive relationships.

As hypothesized, childhood maltreatment and attachment insecurity significantly predicted traumatic bonding over and above the effects of age, gender, and romantic love. In addition, attachment insecurity moderated the association between childhood maltreatment and traumatic bonding, such that at higher levels of attachment insecurity, the association between childhood maltreatment and traumatic bonding was stronger than at mean or lower levels of attachment insecurity. Traumatic bonding was positively associated with PTSD symptoms.

Overall, the results support the role of childhood maltreatment as a risk factor for both traumatic bonding and PTSD symptoms and highlight the importance of attachment insecurity in these associations. This was the first study to examine a complex model of risk factors for traumatic bonding. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.