The moderating roles of difficulties in emotion regulation and rejection sensitivity on the relationship between anxious attachment and psychological dating violence perpetration

This study aims at investigating the moderation role of difficulties in emotion regulation and the moderated moderation role of rejection sensitivity in the relationship between anxious attachment and psychological dating violence perpetration. The sample of the study consists of 237 between the ages of 18-30 participants who defined their sexual orientation as heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual and who had a past or ongoing dating experience at the time of data collection. The data of the study were collected online through the Demographic Information Form (DIF), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ), Emotion Regulation Scale-Brief Form (DERS-16), Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse-Short Form (MMEA-SF). The moderation of the moderation analysis (Model 3) in Process Macro developed by Hayes (2013) was used to test the research hypotheses. Statistical analyses showed that anxious attachment, rejection sensitivity, and difficulties in emotion regulation did not significantly predict psychological dating violence perpetration separately. The moderation effect of difficulties in emotion regulation was observed to depend on the level of rejection sensitivity. Analyses revealed that the risk of perpetrating psychological dating violence increased in anxiously-attached individuals with all levels of emotional dysregulation and rejection sensitivities, except for the low levels of both. The findings obtained from the study were discussed in light of the relevant literature. The limitations of the study, recommendations for clinical applications, and future studies are presented.