Quick summary: Women at a crisis centre in Kazakhstan who had experienced intimate partner violence and reported suicidal thoughts showed lower psychological well-being when neuroticism was higher, and suicidal ideation had a separate link with poorer well-being. The associations were modest, which means personality and suicidal thoughts matter in assessment but do not explain how these women are coping on their own. Crisis services should therefore screen for both, then offer trauma-informed support that also covers safety, self-esteem, social support, money, and stigma, rather than treating distress as a single problem.
A study from Kazakhstan has looked at the psychological well-being of women receiving help at a crisis centre and found that personality and suicidal thoughts each play a part.
The study, published in The Open Psychology Journal, was led by Gulazira Akymbek, PhD, a senior lecturer at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan. It focused on women who had experienced intimate partner violence and reported suicidal thoughts.
The authors describe intimate partner violence as a significant public health and social problem in Kazakhstan. Reports from UN Women cited in the paper estimate that about 400 women die each year in Kazakhstan as a result of domestic violence.
Akymbek said the study came from her doctoral research and from the thin evidence base in the region. “This study was conducted within the framework of my PhD dissertation. Intimate partner violence is currently a highly relevant social and public health issue in Kazakhstan that requires more in-depth scientific investigation. Our motivation was also driven by the limited empirical evidence on the psychological well-being of women survivors of IPV in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Therefore, we examined the separate associations of neuroticism and suicidal ideation with multidimensional psychological well-being among this hard-to-reach population receiving crisis-centre services.”
The study involved 107 women aged 30–45 who were receiving support at a crisis centre in Astana between June and December 2025. They were a hard-to-reach group, recruited because they had experienced partner violence and reported suicidal ideation.
Well-being was measured with the PERMA-Profiler across five areas: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. The women also completed the Freiburg Personality Inventory, which measures neuroticism, the tendency to experience negative emotions, and the Beck Scale for suicidal thoughts.
Higher neuroticism was linked to lower psychological well-being. Suicidal ideation also showed a separate link with lower well-being. Both associations were statistically significant but modest. The authors say this suggests that well-being is also shaped by wider emotional, social, and economic factors.
Previous studies have documented depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, social isolation, and economic and emotional dependency among women survivors of partner violence, the authors note.
They argue that neuroticism and suicidal thoughts are distinct contributors to lower well-being among these women. Personality traits are one part of a broader picture rather than the sole explanation for how women feel after abuse.
Akymbek said the findings point to support that goes beyond immediate crisis care. “The main takeaway is that women who have experienced intimate partner violence may need support that addresses not only their immediate safety and psychological distress but also suicidal ideation, emotional vulnerability, and multiple dimensions of well-being. The findings highlight the importance of accessible, individualised, and trauma-informed psychological services.”
The authors call for comprehensive psychological assessment and support for women who have experienced partner violence and report suicidal thoughts. Assessment in crisis centres should consider these characteristics alongside emotional functioning, self-esteem, social support, economic circumstances, perceived stigma, and access to appropriate services, and support should be comprehensive and culturally sensitive.
The study has limits. The sample was relatively small and drawn from one crisis centre using purposive recruitment. Because reporting suicidal thoughts was a condition of taking part, the findings cannot be applied to survivors who do not have such thoughts. The study also relied on self-report, and the cross-sectional design cannot show whether neuroticism and suicidal thoughts came before or after lower well-being.
Akymbek said the next stage of the work will test whether support changes outcomes over time. “Future research will include larger and more diverse samples of women from multiple crisis centres and regions of Kazakhstan. We also plan to conduct longitudinal studies to examine changes in psychological well-being over time and evaluate the effectiveness of targeted psychological support and intervention programmes for women who have experienced intimate partner violence.”
