| Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 19, Iss. 3, Jul, 2015, pp. 249-268 @2015 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Modeling Outcomes of Partner Violence Using Cusp Catastrophe Modeling Abstract: Research suggests that intimate partner violence (IPV) is a
complex, nonlinear phenomenon. In addition to the violence trajectory itself,
IPV decision-making, help-seeking and leaving are nonlinear processes as well.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether outcomes were best modeled
as cusp catastrophic phenomena with measures of violence nonlinearity and
wife-perpetrated violence serving as bifurcation variables. This 12-week time series study
was conducted among 200 adult women in violent relationships. Women completed
daily assessments of household environment and marital relationship using
Interactive Verbal Response; missing violence data was imputed using
TISEAN software to maintain its nonlinear characteristics. LZ complexity,
approximate entropy, and largest Lyapunov exponents were used as
measures of violence nonlinearity. Asymmetry variables included violence frequency
and severity as well as its onset and duration. Factor-analyzed outcomes
included coping and appraisals, hope and support, symptomatology, functional status, readiness-for-change, and
medical utilization. When severity of wife's violence and
nonlinearity of husband's violence were used as bifurcation variables,
cusp catastrophe modeling helped explain positive and negative coping
as well as readiness-for-change. In conclusion, measures of
nonlinearity of husband's violence and wife's violence contributed
to the variance of three outcomes in cusp catastrophe modeling.
Sudden changes in coping and readiness-for-change in IPV should be
expected and knowledge of violence nonlinearity may have applications
when working with violent couples. Keywords: systems theory, battered women, domestic violence, models, psychological, nonlinear dynamics |