The Relationship Between Stockholm Syndrome and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Battered Women

Furthermore, if research on Stockholm Syndrome and PTSD fails to find a significant relationship between Stockholm Syndrome and PTSD, then perhaps other areas of research are required to better understand the nature of Stockholm Syndrome and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and how these conditions may or may not affect battered women. If the two conditions are, in fact, entirely discrete, perhaps an exploration into the relationship of Stockholm Syndrome with other stress measures temporally unique to the relationship will show a relationship with Stockholm Syndrome. These may include depression measures and anxiety measures for the time during which they are were in the abusive relationship.

The kind and amount of stresses that battered women experience varies from the time they enter the relationship to the time they have exited the relationship. The stressors and conditions the abused women experience during the relationship may have a closer relationship to Stockholm Syndrome than to PTSD, which is developed after the trauma, rather than during the relationship. Perhaps Stockholm Syndrome may still be considered a coping mechanism, but one that instead affects the stress and anxiety level during the relationship. If the abused women believe that their partner loves them and the abuse the abused women suffer is their fault, then perhaps they experience less anxiety because they believe they can change for the better. The opposite may also hold true. The abused women suffer more stress and anxiety because they believe they actually have control over the abuse and nothing they do has any affect.  

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Table 1: Comparison of Measures and Demographic Features Between States and Races

	Mean	Standard Deviation		Mean	Standard Deviation
SSSCORE			AGE
OR	157.28	41.67	OR	34.92	9.95
PA	143.17	39.35	PA	37.17	8.58
AA	156.00	39.76	AA	39.87	8.93
CAUC	156.00	39.41	CAUC	36.25	8.93
MULTI	144.86	51.26	MULTI	25.71	3.64
PTSDSCORE			CHILDREN
OR	61.00	14.62	OR	2.22	1.35
PA	54.87	15.89	PA	2.25	2.38
AA	62.13	16.04	AA	2.25	2.49
CAUC	62.45	10.93	CAUC	2.26	1.52
MULTI	47.29	16.09	MULTI	2.14	1.57
ABUSESCORE			EDUCATION
OR	18.08	4.80	OR	2.54	0.98
PA	17.87	5.07	PA	2.56	0.86
AA	18.73	4.46	AA	2.60	0.74
CAUC	18.50	4.27	CAUC	2.55	1.09
MULTI	18.00	7.37	MULTI	2.43	0.79
EXPOSURE			INCOME
OR	5.24	5.21	OR	21.67	10.90
PA	6.82	5.21	PA	22.78	10.03
AA	6.40	6.02	AA	24.67	12.46
CAUC	6.19	4.97	CAUC	23.16	9.89
MULTI	4.57	5.79	MULTI	15.00	0
SERVICE			RACE*
OR	9.86	9.09	OR	2.20	0.71
PA	5.88	7.51	PA	1.39	0.61
AA	5.92	8.02
CAUC	10.26	9.21
MULTI	6.17	7.57

Table 2: Demographic Information

	EXPOSURE	SERVICE	AGE	CHILDREN	INCOME
Range	19.500	29.000	36.000	7.000	35.000
Median	4.500	5.000	36.000	2.000	15.000
Mean	5.935	8.231	36.689	2.175	22.955
Standard Dev	5.178	8.490	9.940	1.824	11.066

Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of the PTSD Checklist, Stockholm Syndrome Scale, and Woman Abuse Scale

	WAS	SSS	PTSD
Range	19.00	162.00	62.00
Median	18.00	154.00	59.00
Mean	17.98	150.52	58.06
Standard Dev	4.88	40.77	15.39

Table 4: Correlations of Full Scale Scores with Scale Subsets

	SSSCORE	PTSDSCORE	ABUSESC	SSLOVE	SSCORE	SSDAMAGE
SSSCORE	1.000
PTSDSCORE	0.035	1.000
ABUSESC	0.097	0.333	1.000
SSLOVE	0.841*	0.012	0.112	1.000
SSCORE	0.965*	-0.152	0.081	0.688	1.000
SSDAMAGE	0.915*	-0.090	0.072	0.742*	0.845*	1.000
ABPSYCH	-0.042	0.375	0.833*	-0.010	-0.043	-0.055
ABPHYSC	0.172	0.323	0.926*	0.145	0.179	0.131
ABLIFE	0.105	0.119	0.746*	0.180	0.067	0.102

	ABPSYCH	ABPHYSC	ABLIFE
SSSCORE
PTSDSCORE
ABUSESC
SSLOVE
SSCORE
SSDAMAGE
ABPSYCH	1.000
ABPHYSC	0.638	1.000
ABLIFE	0.364	0.674	1.000

* denotes significance at p < .05



Table 5: Correlations of PTSD, SSS, and WAS with Demographic Features

	SSSCORE	PTSDSCORE	ABUSESC	EXPOSURE	SERVICE	AGE
SSSCORE	1.000
PTSDSCORE	0.035	1.000
ABUSESC	0.097	0.333	1.000
EXPOSURE	-0.019	0.301	0.257	1.000
SERVICE	-0.075	-0.008	0.202	0.085	1.000
AGE	-0.083	0.211	0.065	0.137	0.164	1.000
CHILDREN	0.053	0.131	0.314	0.152	0.129	0.309
INCOME	-0.321	0.183	0.008	0.056	0.039	0.600
RACE	0.125	-0.096	0.118	0.314	0.171	-0.357
EDUCATION	0.002	0.099	0.312	-0.342	0.322	0.175

	CHILDREN	INCOME	RACE	EDUCATION
SSSCORE
PTSDSCORE
ABUSESC
EXPOSURE
SERVICE
AGE
CHILDREN	1.000
INCOME	0.499	1.000
RACE	-0.036	-0.266	1.000
EDUCATION	-0.262	-0.182	0.144	1.000

Table 6: Correlations of PTSD, SSS, and WAS with Median Splits

	PTSD	SSSCORE	ABUSE
SSHIGH
PTSD	1.00
SSSCORE	.149	1.00
ABUSE	.155	-.064	1.00
SSLOW
PTSD	1.00
SSSCORE	.253	1.00
ABUSE	.512*	.151	1.00
PTSDHIGH
PTSD	1.00
SSSCORE	.018	1.00
ABUSE	.227	.093	1.00
PTSDLOW
PTSD	1.00
SSSCORE	-.132	1.00
ABUSE	.401	.054	1.00
ABUSEHIGH
PTSD	1.00
SSSCORE	.209	1.00
ABUSE	.071	.086	1.00
ABUSELOW
PTSD	1.00
SSSCORE	.084	1.00
ABUSE	.435	.044	1.00

*denotes significance at the p < .05 level