Relação entre experiências adversas na infância, vinculação e violência nas relações de intimidade

Abstract

Childhood is a crucial stage of development, in which caregivers play a central role in creating a safe and supportive environment. However, not all children grow up in protective environments, facing adversity. It is in this early relational context that attachment styles, influencing how individuals establish and maintain relationships throughout life. Based on this premise, the present study's main objective was to explore the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Attachment Styles (AS), and the perpetration of Violence in Intimate Relationships (VIR) in a sample of 521 participants aged 18 to 74 (M = 30.38, SD = 12.61). Therefore, we used: a purpose-built sociodemographic questionnaire; the Portuguese version of the Childhood Adversity History Questionnaire (HAQQ) to assess adversities experienced during childhood; the Portuguese version of the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) to measure attachment, and the Portuguese version of the Revised Conflict and Tactics Scale (CTS-R) to measure perpetration of intimate partner violence. The results indicated that participants with insecure attachment styles, particularly anxious individuals, reported higher levels of ACEs. It was also found that higher levels of ACEs are associated with greater perpetration of VIR, these being the only significant predictive variables identified in the regression models, since attachment styles did not demonstrate a statistically significant contribution in predicting VIR.

Date of Award	27 Jan 2026
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Diana Patrícia da Silva Dias Moreira (Supervisor)