Estresse frente a COVID-19 e a agressão psicológica nas relações amorosas

Abstract

In Brazil, the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on February 26, 2020, thus being declared an Emergency in Public Health of National Importance (ESPIN) by the Ministry of Health. control measures against its spread, such as quarantines and social isolation. These measures affected many aspects of people's lives, creating serious threats to their health and triggering various types of problems. Among these, there was a relevant risk of a potential increase in intimate partner violence (IPV). Reports in several countries show a significant increase in IPV during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus,

this dissertation proposes to investigate the relationship between stress against COVID- 19 and psychological aggression in romantic relationships. The emphasis on this specific

type of violence is due to the fact that it is a form of IPV that presents itself in a more subtle way, often being naturalized and not recognized as violence. Therefore, studies were carried out divided into three articles. The first article deals with the adaptation of the COVID-19 Stress Scales (CSS), gathering psychometric evidence. The second article deals with the adaptation and validation of the Psychological Aggression Scale (PAS). Finally, the last article proposes to know to what extent stress against COVID-19 explains the perpetration behavior of psychological aggression, controlling the effects of age and sex. In article 1, two studies were carried out with participants from different Brazilian states. In the first (n = 423) the exploratory factor analysis suggested a pentafactorial structure. In the second (n = 300) a confirmatory factor analysis was performed, testing the pentafactorial model. Pearson's correlation (r) was performed, which showed positive and statistically significant relationships between anxiety and stress against COVID, indicating convergent validity. In article 2, two studies were also carried out with participants from different Brazilian states. The first study had a sample of 200 participants, and through the Factor (version 10.5), exploratory factor analysis was performed, which suggested a unifactorial structure for both the victimization scale and the perpetration scale, with factorial loads that ranged from 0.490 to 0.895 for the first and 0.374 to 0.904 for the second. In this study, the internal consistency indices were adequate for both scales (Victimization: (α) 0.87 and (Ω) 0.88; Perpetration: (α) 0.85 and (Ω) 0.85). In the second study, there was a new sample of 207 participants, and through R 3.3.3 (R Core Team, 2017) a confirmatory factor analysis was performed, confirming the one-dimensional structure of the EAP, which presented indicators that attest to the adjustment from the model to the data, showing accuracy indicators above the recommended (Victimization: (α) 0.87 and (Ω) 0.88; Perpetration: (α) 0.86 and (Ω) 0.86). In article 3, 264 people participated. The results of this study, through correlations and hierarchical regressions, showed that the xenophobia (r= 0.18; p<0.001) and post- traumatic stress (r= 0.16; p<0.001) factors of the stress measure of COVID-19 explained the perpetration behavior of psychological aggression among intimate partners [R = 0.26, R2Adjusted = 0.04; F (7.258) = 2.623, p < 0.01]. These findings expand the discussion on psychological aggression and the stress generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.