Guilt, shame, and fear in relation to posttraumatic growth through psychological flexibility among adults reporting dating violence exposure.

Dating violence can be experienced as a form of relational trauma, yet comparatively little is known about whether guilt, shame, and fear show differentiated indirect associations with posttraumatic growth when global psychological flexibility is specified as an intervening construct among adults reporting dating violence exposure. This cross-sectional study tested a hypothesized structural equation model in 396 adults (M = 32.15, SD = 9.33) who responded affirmatively to a dichotomous screening item concerning prior dating violence. The item was used solely to determine eligibility, and dating violence was not modeled as an explanatory variable. Shame (β = -0.170, p = 0.007) and fear (β = -0.423, p < 0.001) were negatively associated with psychological flexibility, whereas guilt was positively associated with psychological flexibility (β = 0.158, p = 0.009). Psychological flexibility, assessed as a broad construct, was positively associated with posttraumatic growth (β = 0.613, p < 0.001). Bootstrapped analyses with 5,000 resamples showed significant indirect associations for fear (β = -0.259, 95% bias-corrected CI [-0.343, -0.187]), shame (β = -0.105, 95% bias-corrected CI [-0.188, -0.030]), and guilt (β = 0.097, 95% bias-corrected CI [0.021, 0.180]). These findings indicate differentiated cross-sectional indirect associations between emotional experiences and posttraumatic growth in a model including psychological flexibility. Because all variables were measured concurrently and dating violence was used only as an eligibility criterion, the results do not establish temporal precedence, causal mediation, or variation according to the severity, frequency, duration, or type of violence exposure.