Anger Rumination as a Moderator of the Association between Factor 2 of Psychopathy and Proactive Aggression

Objective: Scholars have identified psychopathic traits as facilitators of intimate partner violence (IPV). Analyzing anger management strategies might clarify how these personality traits contribute to violence proneness. One potential moderator to consider is the tendency to ruminate about anger (or anger rumination). However, the pattern of association between psychopathic traits and violence proneness differs depending on psychopathy factors and the subtypes of violence expression (reactive or proactive). Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine whether the two factors of psychopathy and/or the total score would explain the expression of violence subtype (reactive and proactive), introducing anger rumination as a moderator and controlling the effect of potential confounding factors. Method: A total of 125 healthy men (64 IPV perpetrators and 61 controls) were recruited. All of them were interviewed and answered to a set of self-reports. In addition, a psychophysiological record was collected during a resting period. Results: The results showed that all participants (IPV and controls) who scored high in factor 2 of psychopathy presented a high tendency toward proactive aggression when they exhibited moderate or high levels of anger rumination. This model remained significant after controlling for the effect of potential confounding variables. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of developing specialized modules in the interventions for IPV perpetrators or other violent men. These modules should focus on offering adaptative strategies to deal with anger and reduce anger rumination tendencies. This might help increase their threshold and reduce violence proneness and/or IPV recidivism.