Intimate Partner Violence in the Christian Faith Community: Exploring the Influence of Institutional Spiritual Abuse on Marriages

Abstract

Objective: Intimate partner violence has been under-investigated in the Christian faith population. Previous research suggests Christian women have unique vulnerabilities to interpersonal violence due to factors spanning several ecological levels. This study explored the relationship between institutional abuse, faith, spiritual impression management, psychological abuse, and the emerging construct of spiritual abuse in Christian marriages. Method: Data from 1,637 current and 149 former Christian women were collected. Factors contributing to former Christians leaving the faith were also explored. Findings: Over 30% of participants reported “often” experiencing organizational spiritual abuse and recurring marital psychological abuse every few months with former Christians experiencing significantly higher levels of organizational abuse. Key findings also included: (a) higher organizational abuse predicted higher marital psychological and spiritual abuse but lower spiritual impression management, (b) higher faith predicted higher impression management which predicted higher marital abuse, (c) marital psychological abuse and impression management moderated the relationships between organization abuse and marital abuse, and (d) close to 90% of former Christians reported negative experiences in the faith community “very much” contributing to them leaving the faith. Notably, although the relationship between systemic abuse and IPV has been theoretically associated, this study is the first to demonstrate not only a correlational but a predictive relationship. Further, the findings regarding the construct of spiritual abuse suggest differences between organizational and interpersonal spiritual abuse that warrant further study.