Emotional, physical and sexual abuse and their role in the organization of the anxiety patterns in women

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of the role of psychotraumatization of women due to different types of violent influence in the formation of a specific pattern of anxiety. The study is based on the assumption that the course of post-traumatic stress in women, in whose life history there is an experience of emotional, physical, sexual violence or their combinations, is accompanied by various manifestations of anxiety specific to each type of violence. In order to test the hypothesis, the following methods were used: «Life Experiences Questionnaire (LEC-5)»; «The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory»; «Ich-Struktur-Test nach Ammon»; «The Thematic Apperception Test»; an anamnestic interview. The study involved 74 women aged 20 to 59 years, (med = 30). The data set was conducted in the period from May 2021 to September 2022 as part of a dissertation study. It is shown that respondents who have experienced emotional, physical, and sexual violence and assess it as the most traumatic event in their individual experience have a higher level of post-traumatic stress than respondents whose psychotraumatization picture lacks episodes of violence. Study participants who have lifelong contact with stressors related to violence of various types, including forced evidence of physical violence, in addition to a higher level of post-traumatic stress have a statistically higher level of unconscious anxiety. Individual interpretation of any type of violence as the most traumatic event in the entire history of life or devaluation of the degree of its destructive impact for some reason does not play a statistically significant role in the overall picture of psychotraumatization of the individual and in the formation of a specific profile of anxiety. The aggravation of the anamnesis with sexual and (or) physical violence by additional emotional violence is accompanied by an increase in the level of unconscious anxiety. Destructive anxiety is higher in women whose experience includes sexual violence in addition to physical violence.