Psychological Network Structure in Court-Referred Men for Intimate Partner Violence and a Community Comparison Group: A Network Analysis

This study examined psychological network structure in 216 court-referred men undergoing IPV-related evaluation and 224 community men. Networks included emotional dependence, dark triad traits, emotion regulation, and repetitive negative thinking. Community participants were not screened for IPV perpetration and therefore were not considered confirmed non-perpetrators. Overall network structure did not differ significantly between groups (M = .281, p = .58), whereas global strength was significantly greater in the community group (S = 1.159, p = .02). Findings are exploratory and should be interpreted cautiously given group differences in age, recruitment context, and assessment modality.