Gaslighting Exposure During Emerging Adulthood: Personality Traits and Vulnerability Paths

Abstract

Among the many forms of psychological violence, gaslighting is a particularly insidious manipulative behaviour that includes acts aimed at controlling and altering one’s own partner’s sensations, thoughts, actions, affective state, self-perception, and reality-testing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between the experience of gaslighting and dysfunctional aspects of the partner’s personality. Gaslighter personality facets were assessed using the Personality Inventory for DSM-5–Informant Form–Adult (PID-5-IRF), while gaslighting behaviours were assessed using a 25-item questionnaire, based on the three categories of glamour, good-guy, and intimidator (Stern, 2007). The sample was made up of a group of 177 Italian emerging adults aged between 19 and 26 (49.2% male, 50.8% female; M = 21.88, SD = 1.75), enrolled at University, who participated voluntarily in the research. In fact, none of them received any form of direct or indirect incentive. In our study, we applied a beta regression model mapping the Likert scale into the open interval (0,1). The main results show (a) good-guy gaslighting is positively associated with manipulativeness and negatively associated with deceitfulness; (b) glamour gaslighting has a negative association with separation insecurity and manipulativeness, but it is positively associated with irresponsibility; (c) intimidator gaslighting has a positive association with separation insecurity and distractibility and a negative association with eccentricity and perceptual dysregulation; (d) all three gaslighting categories are negatively associated with anhedonia and impulsivity. Based on what emerged from the data, aspects such as separation insecurity, irresponsibility, and distractibility can be seen as serious risk factors for gaslighting. For this reason, with regard to clinical implications, an early recognition of dysfunctional traits in potential abusers should be fostered in order to protect both potential abusers and their partner from aggressive conduct within an intimate relationship.