The moderating role of empathic concern and perspective-taking in breaking the cycle of psychological violence to realize Sustainable Good Well-being

¹ Faculty of Educational Psychology, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia
² School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

^* Corresponding author: hermeiliamegawati@unj.ac.id

Abstract

Psychological violence is a serious obstacle to achieving the SDGs because of its broad impact on the well-being of individuals and society. This research investigated how perspective-taking and empathic concern moderate the relationship between the experience of being a victim of emotional abuse and the likelihood of being a perpetrator in the future. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach and used online questionnaires for the data collection. It involved 750 participants aged 18-25 years who were or had been in a heterosexual relationship for at least six months in the Greater Jakarta area. The instruments were the Multi-dimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse Short Form (α= .933), the nterpersonal Reactivity Index on perspective taking (α=.669), and the empathic concern subscale (α=.645). The collected data was analysed using a moderated regression model with JASP 0.18.3. The results show that perspective-taking has a significant moderating effect (B=-.034, p<.001), but empathic concern does not show a significant effect as a moderator (B=.0001, p=.983). Therefore, theoretical models that focus on the development of cognitive empathy abilities are needed to understand psychological violence in more depth.