Personality correlates of gaslighting behaviours in young adults

ABSTRACT

This study focused on gaslighting, a specific type of psychological violence occurring in intimate relationships, where one partner displays controlling behaviours towards the other. The aim of the research was to analyse the association between gaslighting behaviours and dysfunctional personality domains of both abusers and survivors, respectively assessed through the PID-5-IRF and the PID-5-BF. A group of 250 young adults (males = 124), aged 18–30 years (M = 22.99, SD = 3.02), took part in this study. Our results showed that (a) for abusers, detachment, disinhibition and psychoticism were positively associated with gaslighting behaviours, and (b) for survivors, antagonism, disinhibition and psychoticism were positively associated with gaslighting behaviours from a partner.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychological violence
• gaslighting
• intimate partner violence
• personality traits
• young adulthood

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Massimo Attanasio (University of Palermo) for his advice on our methodology and statistical approach.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).