The relationship between complex post traumatic stress disorder with intimate partner violence, childhood traumas and coping styles

The variables predicting the symptoms of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), which was included as a new diagnostic category in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), remain unclear. The main purpose of the current study is to investigate the variables predicting the severity level of CPTSD symptoms. The sample of the study consisted of 376 participants 250 women (66.5%) and 126 men (33.5%), aged between 18 and 65, who had at least one romantic relationship experience. Demographic Information Form, Life Events Checklist (LEC), Childhood Traumas Scale (CTQ), Complex Trauma Inventory (CTI), The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) and Brief COPE were administered to the participants through online platforms. Arithmetic mean, standard deviation, percentage, minimum and maximum values of descriptive statistics are given. The data obtained were evaluated with independent samples t test, Pearson and Spearman Rho correlation analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis was carried out to determine the variables predicting CPTSD symptom severity. According to the findings of the analysis, there were significant positive relationships between CPTSD symptom severity and intimate partner violence types of psychological, physical and sexual violence. Among the demographic variables, gender and age, childhood traumas and focusing on and venting of emotions, substance use, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement and restraint coping among coping styles were found to significantly predict CPTSD symptom severity, whereas humor, acceptance and denial, which were included in the analysis, were not. In the last stage of the hierarchical regression, it was found that gender was no longer a significant predictor of CPTSD symptom severity with the addition of coping styles. The results of the study were discussed within literature and the limitations of the study and recommendations were presented based on these findings.