Skin conductance rises in preparation and recovery to psychosocial stress and its relationship with impulsivity and testosterone in intimate partner violence perpetrators

Intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators were categorized into 2 groups using Gottman et al.'s (1995) typology depending on their skin conductance (SC) reactivity to stress. Overall, type I perpetrators tend to show autonomic underarousal, whereas type II perpetrators present a preparatory hyperreactivity to confront stress. Moreover, impulsivity traits and testosterone (T) levels may modulate SC responses to increase the risk of proneness to violence. In this study, SC response to stress was assessed by comparing IPV perpetrators with non-violent controls while performing a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Subjects with a history of IPV demonstrated higher non-specific SC responses during the recovery period than the non-violent controls. Nonetheless, there were no differences between groups in the case of mean SC levels. Furthermore, impulsivity and baseline T levels were associated with higher SC level reactivity during a preparation period only in IPV perpetrators, with both relationships being mediated by anger expression. Our results confirm that the IPV perpetrators correspond physiologically to type II and support the validity of SC as a diagnostic indicator for IPV classification. Our findings contribute to the development of effective treatment and prevention programs that could benefit from the use of biological indicators for analyzing the risk of recidivism in IPV perpetrators. •IPV perpetrators have high non-specific SC responses during recovery period.•Impulsivity was associated with high SC levels reactivity in IPV perpetrators.•Basal T was associated with high SC levels reactivity in IPV perpetrators.•Anger expression mediates both relationships.•SC could be used as a valid diagnostic indicator for IPV classification.