Body ownership of women with and without history of intimate partner violence

Abstract

The aims of the present study were: (i) to compare the sense of body ownership between women with and without a history of IPV (ii) to analyze the relationships between body ownership and mental health variables (e.g., behaviors of self-injury, suicidal ideation, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Anxiety or Depression diagnoses). The RHI protocol (Rabellino et al., 2016) was administered to twenty-seven women victims of IPV living in Portuguese shelters (IPV group; mean age 39.7 ± 10.6 years), and to twenty-seven women non-victims of IPV living in the community (no-IPV group; mean age 43.6 ± 11.4 years). The results sustain the hypothesis of a weakened sense of body ownership in women victims of IPV, along with higher prevalence of physical and mental health problems. We suggest that therapeutic interventions directed to IPV victims address their body ownership, and preventive actions to bring community awareness about the importance of promoting the sense of body ownership.