Intimate Partner Violence in Tunisia: Emotional Abuse and Dependency, Alexithymia, and Self-Esteem in Female Victims

Abstract

Despite legislative advances in Tunisia, intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a widespread issue where cultural norms and systems often reinforce silence and male authority over women. This study aims to explore the characteristics of IPV and assess the emotional abuse, emotional dependency, alexithymia, and self-esteem among female victims. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study, involving 120 female victims of IPV who sought expertise at the Psychiatric Emergency Department in Sfax, Tunisia. The data were collected through individual medical visits using the Emotional Abuse Scale (EAS), the Emotional Dependence Questionnaire (EDQ), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Of the 120 women who agreed to participate in this study, 75.8% were affected by severe emotional violence, 38.3% were emotionally dependent on their spouses, 59.2% were alexithymic, and 83.3% had low self-esteem. The emotional abuse scores were positively correlated with emotional dependency scores (p = 0.026; rho = 0.204). The presence of alexithymia among the victims was significantly correlated with their emotional dependency on their husbands (p = 0.004). Our findings confirm that considering women’s emotional profiles can have important implications for designing both preventive and effective interventions.