231 The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 3 Intimate Partner Violence Participants’ experiences of IPV were assessed through the question “Have you ever experienced intimate partner violence (physical, sexual, or psychological harm) by a current or former partner or spouse since the age of 18?” Responses were coded as 1 = Yes, 0 = No. Adult Attachment Adult attachment was measured using the Experience in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998). The ECR consists of 36 items with 18 items assessing each of the two dimensions: anxious attachment (e.g., “I worry about being abandoned”) and avoidant attachment (e.g., “I try to avoid getting too close to my partner/friends”). To reduce confounding factors with childhood attachment with their parent(s) or primary caregiver(s), we only assessed adult attachment with close friends and/ or romantic partners. Responses were rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Two scores were computed by averaging items on each subscale, with a higher score reflecting a higher level of anxious or avoidant attachment. Two subscales demonstrated high construct validity in various studies (Gormley & Lopez, 2010; Ponti & Tani, 2019) and a relatively high consistency for anxiety (α = .91) and avoidance (α = .94; Brennan et al., 1998). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the present study were .93 for anxiety and .92 for avoidance. Self-Esteem The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) is a 10-item self-report measure of overall feelings of self-worth or self-acceptance (e.g., “I am satisfied with myself”). All items were coded using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Items were summed, with a higher score indicating a higher level of self-esteem. RSES has been frequently used in various studies, demonstrating high reliability and validity (Brennan & Morris, 1997; Rosenberg, 1979). The Cronbach’s alpha for the present study was .89. Control Variables To make more accurate estimates, we included control variables that are potentially associated with IPV exposures, such as gender and household income. Gender was dummy coded as 1 = Male, 2 = Female. Data Analysis We used SPSS 27 for data preparation and Mplus 8 for data analysis. Missing data were treated with the full information maximum likelihood in Mplus as recommended (Acock, 2005). We examined all the bivariate relationships between all the variables within our study including IPV, childhood attachment, adult attachment (anxious and avoidant attachment), self-esteem, and control variables (i.e., gender and household income). We conducted path analysis to examine the moderating role of childhood attachment between IPV, self-esteem, and adult attachment (see Figure 1). We computed an interaction term by multiplying the predictor (IPV) and the moderator (childhood attachment). A moderation relationship is identified if the interaction item significantly predicts the dependent variables (Baron & Kenny, 1986). The goodness of model fit was evaluated by recommended indices with a non-significant chi-square value, RMSEA < .08, CFI > .90, TLI > .90, and SRMR < .05 (Hooper et al., 2008).
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