Pereira, Paula Sismeiro2018-04-272018-04-272014Pereira, Paula Sismeiro (2014). A developmental approach to intimate partner violence prevention. In Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Mental Health. Tallinnhttp://hdl.handle.net/10198/17359The theoretical framework for intimate battering has been focused mostly on societal dimensions (socio-demographic variables, gender roles and power). Intimate partner homicide, which has deserved less attention from researchers, also has been explained considering socio-demographic and situational variables. Even authors who inscribe their models on a developmental approach explore variables of early childhood, since childhood abuse or witnessing of inter-parental violence, in a merely descriptive way. This presentation purposes to explore: 1) how early childhood experiences are intertwined to promote psychological organizations which are damaging to the establishment of intimate partner relationships, and 2) how, for those who have those psychological organizations, violence may occurs, under several conditions, in the context of intimate relationships. This study has a quantitative and qualitative methodology applying several self-reporting instruments to assess personality [16PF-5 – Sixteen factors Personality Questionnaire (Cattell, R. B.; Cattell, A. K. S. & Cattell, H. E. P., 1993; Portuguese version adapted by Barros & Rocha, 1998)], attachment to parents [RQ - Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991; Portuguese adaptation Cabral & Mena Matos, 2004)] and to romantic partner [EREP – Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998; Portuguese adaptation Oliveira & Costa, 2009)], and psychopathy [PCL-R (Hare, 1991, 2003; Portuguese version adapted by Gonçalves, 1999, 2007)], and a semi-structured interview specially conceived for this research. Our participants are adults inmates arrested for violence or homicide against partner: 18 men and 8 women arrested for murderer the partner and 6 men arrested for violence against partner. We analyse differences between batterers and murderers and men and women. We explore results about attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance), childhood emotional neglect and anti-social behaviour confronting them with personality factors on adulthood to explain battering and homicide. The discussion will stress the relevance of emotional neglect and insecure attachment prevention to prevent intimate partner violence.engIntimate partner violenceEarly Childhood ExperiencesAttachmentChildhood Emotional Neglectconference object