The relationship between psychopathology and the experience of gaslighting in women

This study focused on gaslighting, a type of emotional and psychological abuse. Gaslighting is defined as manipulating someone psychologically to such an extent that they question their own reality or sanity, and cause self-doubt. In the current study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between women's experience of gaslighting and psychological symptoms, sociodemographic characteristics. For this purpose; Personal Information Form, Gaslighting Questionnaire (GQ) to measure women's experience of gaslighting, and Symptom Checklist (SCL90-R) to measure psychopathological symptoms were used. The sample consists of women between the ages of 18-67 (n:234). The data obtained were analyzed with SPSS program with One- Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), independent t-test and Pearson correlation. As a result it was concluded that there is a significant relationship between the levels of women's gaslighting experience and their psychological symptom levels. The women's education status, marital status, having a romantic relationship, and housing status were found to be factors related to the level of experience of gaslighting. As a conclusion this research is important for the recognition, prevention and intervention of gaslighting as a type of violence against women, which is a universal problem.