The Meta-Analytic Relationship between Exposure to Domestic Violence and Dissociative Symptoms

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Domestic violence and the impact it has on victim-survivor’s mental health remains an international public health concern. Dissociation has often been linked to traumatic experiences and may present as a protective defense mechanism for victim-survivors of domestic violence. This meta-analysis sought to examine the meta-analytic relationship between domestic violence exposure and dissociative symptoms. Method The results of a systematic literature search of PsycInfo, Medline, Web of Science and PTSDpubs yielded 1331 studies, 12 of which were eligible for review. Two random effects meta-analyses were conducted to investigate the strength of the association between (1) physical domestic violence exposure and dissociation symptoms and (2) multi-type domestic violence exposure and dissociative symptoms. Results The meta-analyses showed significant positive associations between dissociation symptoms and both physical domestic violence ( r = .37; 95% CI = 0.19 − 0.55) and multi-type domestic violence ( r =.28; 95% CI = 0.22 − 0.34) exposure. Most of the studies are cross-sectional therefore causality cannot be inferred. The studies within the physical domestic violence analysis demonstrated considerable heterogeneity, I² = 84%, potentially due to variation in population samples and measures of domestic violence and dissociation symptoms used. Conclusion This review indicated that physical domestic violence and multi-type domestic violence are moderately associated with dissociative symptoms. Future research within this field would benefit from increased use of psychological and coercive control assessment tools to measure the impact of all forms of domestic violence to increase construct validity of the pattern of domestic violence being measured.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Family Violence, 2026 · DOI ↗