Childhood Abuse's Path to Partner Violence in Young Adulthood: Study by Herrenkohl et al., Essays (university) of Psychology

Download Childhood Abuse's Path to Partner Violence in Young Adulthood: Study by Herrenkohl et al. and more Essays (university) Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Violence and Victims, Volume 19, Number 2, April 2004 © 2004 Springer Publishing Company 123 Pathways From Physical Childhood Abuse to Partner Violence in Young Adulthood Todd I. Herrenkohl W. Alex Mason Rick Kosterman Liliana J. Lengua J. David Hawkins Robert D. Abbott University of Washington Seattle Analyses investigated several competing hypotheses about developmental pathways from childhood physical abuse and early aggression to intimate partner violence (IPV) for young adult males and females at age 24. Potential intervening variables included: ado- lescent violence (age 15 to 18), negative emotionality at age 21, and quality of one’s rela- tionship with an intimate partner at age 24. At the bivariate level, nearly all variables were associated in the expected directions. However, tests of possible intervening variables revealed only a few significant results. For males, a strong direct effect of abuse on later partner violence was maintained in each model. For females, the quality of one’s rela- tionship with an intimate partner did appear to mediate the effect of childhood abuse on later violence to a partner, raising the possibility of gender differences in developmental pathways linking abuse to IPV. Implications with regard to prevention are discussed. Keywords: child abuse; domestic abuse; intimate partner violence; abuse Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious national problem that affects a countlessnumber of families across demographic groups (Magdol, Moffitt, Caspi, & Silva,1998). Findings from several studies, including the National Family Violence Surveys (NFVS; Straus, 1990), are useful for estimating the scope of the problem. According to the NFVS first conducted in 1975, 160 of every 1000 families experienced partner vio- lence; that number was nearly unchanged when data were last collected in 1985. The NFVS and other studies have investigated violence perpetrated by males toward their female partners and by females toward their male partners, with noteworthy findings. For example, evidence appears to contradict the commonly held belief that women are routinely victims of violence but rarely perpetrators (Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001; Morse, 1995; Straus & Gelles, 1990). While studies continue to show that females are indeed victimized by their male partners—some by the most serious forms of assault— findings suggest that females also perpetrate some forms of violence at rates proportional to males, or higher (Archer, 2002; Magdol et al., 1998; Moffitt et al., 2001; Straus &