scholarly journals Exposure to family violence from childhood to adulthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Shields ◽  
Lil Tonmyr ◽  
Wendy E. Hovdestad ◽  
Andrea Gonzalez ◽  
Harriet MacMillan

Abstract Background Both childhood maltreatment (CM) and intimate partner violence (IPV) are public health problems that have been related to a wide range of adverse health consequences. However, studies examining associations between specific types of CM and experiencing IPV in adulthood have yielded conflicting results. Methods Using data from 10,608 men and 11,458 women aged 18 or older from Canada’s 2014 General Social Survey, we examined associations between three types of CM—childhood physical abuse (CPA), childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and childhood exposure to IPV —and subsequent intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood (physical, sexual or emotional). Results When potential confounders were controlled, CPA, CSA and childhood exposure to IPV were associated with IPV in adulthood for both sexes (odds ratios, 1.7, 1.8 and 2.0 for men, and 2.2, 2.0 and 2.1 for women). When severity and frequency of CM were examined, a dose-response relationship between all three types of CM and IPV in adulthood was observed among women (meaning that as the severity/frequency of CM increased, the likelihood of reporting IPV also increased); among men, a dose-response relationship was observed only for CPA. Conclusions The association between CM and IPV in adulthood is particularly concerning because experiencing multiple forms of trauma has cumulative effects. Lifespan studies have shown that individuals who experience multiple incidents of abuse exhibit the highest levels of impairment. This underscores the importance of programs to eradicate both CM and IPV. This underscores the importance of programs to eradicate both CM and IPV. Future research should focus on assessing interventions designed to promote healthy relationships and the provision of emotional support and coping mechanisms to children and families in abusive situations.

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052091258
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Brownridge ◽  
Tamara Taillieu ◽  
Marcelo L. Urquia ◽  
Alexandra Lysova ◽  
Ko Ling Chan ◽  
...  

This study examined the elevated risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) among persons with mental health-related disabilities (MH-RD) and the extent to which known risk factors accounted for this phenomenon. Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of 33,127 Canadians collected in 2014 as part of Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey. Results showed that respondents with MH-RD had more than three-fold increased odds of both overall and severe IPV victimization. Although females were more likely to possess a MH-RD, males and females with MH-RD reported similarly elevated odds of IPV victimization. Risk factors that contributed to a significant reduction in elevated odds of IPV for respondents with MH-RD were child maltreatment (CM), respondents’ nonprescription drug abuse, and perpetrators’ jealous, monitoring, and socially isolating behaviors. The inability to test additional risk factors and bidirectionality in the relationship between MH-RD and IPV may have contributed to the failure to fully account for these respondents’ elevated odds of IPV. Future research is needed to understand the complex mechanisms contributing to the elevated risk of IPV and enhance prevention and intervention strategies for this underresearched and underserved vulnerable population.


Partner Abuse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lysova ◽  
Eugene Emeka Dim ◽  
Donald Dutton

National victimization surveys that conceptualize intimate partner violence (IPV) as crime can contribute to a better understanding of the most severe forms of victimization in the intimate partner relationship. Based on the 2014 Canadian General Social Survey on Victimization, this study examined the prevalence of victimization resulted from physical and/or sexual IPV, controlling behaviors and also consequences of IPV for both men and women in a sample representative of the Canadian population. Given the paucity of research on male victims of IPV at the national population level, this article specifically discussed the experiences of men who reported violence perpetrated by their female intimate partners. Results showed that 2.9% of men and 1.7% of women reported experiencing physical and/or sexual IPV in their current relationships in the last 5 years. In addition, 35% of male and 34% of female victims of IPV experienced high controlling behaviors—the most severe type of abuse known as intimate terrorism. Moreover, 22% of male victims and 19% of female victims of IPV were found to have experienced severe physical violence along with high controlling behaviors. Although female victims significantly more often than male victims reported the injuries and short-term emotional effects of IPV (e.g., fear, depression, anger), there was no significant difference in the experience of the most long-term effects of spousal trauma—posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related symptoms. This article argues that future research should explain the increased gap in reporting of the IPV victimization among men compared to women.


2019 ◽  
pp. 088626051987793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria M. Galano ◽  
Andrew Grogan-Kaylor ◽  
Hannah M. Clark ◽  
Sara F. Stein ◽  
Sandra A. Graham-Bermann

Childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with a host of problems, including the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). PTSS include a wide range of unique symptomatology and as a result, clinical presentations of PTSS can vary in both distribution and overall number of symptoms. Work in child and adolescent samples has largely focused on factors predicting the total number of symptoms (i.e., symptom severity), with less work focused on both patterns of symptom number and distribution. Furthermore, few studies have examined how functional impairment varies in relation to PTSS presentation. The goal of the current study is to (a) document patterns of PTSS severity and distribution in children with histories of witnessing IPV, (b) examine the factors that predict different PTSS presentations, and (c) investigate how PTSS presentation is associated with functional impairment. Data for this study were drawn from a sample of 236 children between the ages of 4 and 12 years and their mothers who had experienced recent IPV. Families reported high levels of IPV in the past year, and children reported moderate levels of PTSS. A latent profile analysis of PTSS revealed that three profiles were the best-fitting model for the data. The three profiles were differentiated between low, moderate, and high levels of PTSS, and membership in the profiles varied by children’s age and trauma history. The results of this study give important information about the potential development of PTSS as well as clinically useful information about the relationship between children’s PTSS and their functioning following exposure to IPV.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solveig Lelaurain ◽  
Pierluigi Graziani ◽  
Grégory Lo Monaco

Abstract. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global social concern: many women are affected by this phenomenon and by the difficulty of putting an end to it. This review of the literature aims to identify help-seeking facilitating and inhibiting factors in response to IPV. It was carried out on the PsycINFO and Medline databases using the following keywords: “intimate partner violence,” “domestic violence,” “help-seeking,” and “help-seeking barrier.” Ninety out of 771 eligible publications were included on the basis of inclusion criteria. The results highlight that (1) research on this phenomenon is very recent and underdeveloped in Europe, (2) theoretical and conceptual frameworks are poorly developed and extended, (3) there is a significant impact of violence characteristics (e.g., severity, type) on help-seeking, and (4) help-seeking is a complex and multifactorial process influenced by a wide range of factors simultaneously individual and social. To conclude, these findings lead us to propose a psychosocial conceptualization of the help-seeking process by indicating how the levels of explanation approach in social psychology can be applied to this field of research in order to increase our understanding of this phenomenon.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110104
Author(s):  
Cortney A. Franklin ◽  
Leana A. Bouffard ◽  
Alondra D. Garza ◽  
Amanda Goodson

Focal concerns has utility for explaining criminal justice decisions, including among police. At present, there is no research that has examined focal concerns and arrest decisions in non-sexual, intimate partner violence (IPV) cases. This study used a stratified random sample of 776 IPV incidents from an urban police department in one of the five largest and most diverse US cities to assess the effect of focal concerns on arrest. A multivariate binary logistic regression model demonstrated victim injury, suspect IPV and general criminal history, evidence, witnesses, victim preference for formal intervention, women victims, and intoxicated suspects predicted arrest. When the suspect was on scene, this was the strongest predictor of arrest. Implications and future research are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122110001
Author(s):  
Ran Hu ◽  
Jia Xue ◽  
Xiying Wang

In China, women who domestically relocate from rural or less developed regions to major cities are at a higher risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) than their non-migrant counterparts. Few studies have focused on Chinese domestic migrant women’s help-seeking for IPV and their use of different sources of support. The present study aimed to identify factors that influence migrant women’s help-seeking decisions. In addition, we also examined factors that contribute to migrant women’s use of diverse sources of support for IPV. A sample of 280 migrant women victimized by IPV in the past year at the time of the survey was drawn from a larger cross-sectional study conducted in four major urban cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Using a multinomial logistic regression model and a zero-inflated Poisson model, we found that factors influencing migrant women’s help-seeking decisions and their use of diverse sources of support included socioeconomic factors, IPV type, relationship-related factors, knowledge of China’s first anti-Domestic Violence Law, and perception of the effectiveness of current policies. We discuss implications for future research and interventions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 152483802110131
Author(s):  
Ilana Seff

In light of the many robust quantitative data sets that include information on attitudes and behaviors related to intimate partner violence (IPV), and in an effort to expand the evidence base around social norms and IPV, many researchers construct proxy measures of norms within and across groups embedded in the data. While this strategy has become increasingly popular, there is no standardized approach for assessing and constructing these norm proxies, and no review of these approaches has been undertaken to date. This study presents the results of a systematic review of methods used to construct quantitative proxy measures for social norms related to IPV. PubMed, Embase, Popline, and Scopus, and PsycINFO were searched using Boolean search techniques. Inclusion criteria comprised studies published since 2000 in English that either (i) examined a norm proxy related to gender or IPV or (ii) analyzed the relationship between a norm proxy and perpetration of, experiences of, or attitudes toward IPV. Studies that employed qualitative methods or that elicited direct measures of descriptive or injunctive norms were not included. Twenty-six studies were eligible for review. Evidence from this review highlights inconsistencies in how proxies are constructed, how they are assessed to ensure valid representation of norms, and how researchers acknowledge their respective method’s limitations. Key processes and reflections employed by some of the studies are identified and recommended for future research inquiries.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110500
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Kilgallen ◽  
Susan B. Schaffnit ◽  
Yusufu Kumogola ◽  
Anthony Galura ◽  
Mark Urassa ◽  
...  

Urbanization in low and middle-income nations is characterized by economic and demographic shifts largely understood to be beneficial to women’s empowerment. These changes include increased education and wage-labor opportunities, a disruption of traditional patrilocal residence systems, and reductions in spousal age gap and fertility. However, such changes may drive a “violence backlash,” with men increasing intimate partner violence (IPV) in efforts to challenge women’s shifting status. To date, tests of this idea primarily relate to women’s changing economic status, with less known about the demographic correlates of IPV in urbanizing settings. Addressing this, we conducted a cross-sectional study of IPV behavior and attitudes in an urbanizing community in Mwanza, northern Tanzania ( n = 317). Consistent with a violence backlash, IPV was reported more often among women educated at higher levels than their husband, and women earning similar, rather than lower, wages to their husband were more likely to report that he condones IPV. These findings were independent of women’s absolute education and income. Furthermore, less frequent paternal kin contact, and relatively small spousal age gaps, generally understood to boost women’s empowerment, were associated with an increased risk of experiencing IPV. Less frequent paternal kin contact was also associated with an increased likelihood that a husband condones IPV. Contrary to our predictions, relatively lower fertility, generally linked to higher women’s empowerment, did not predict IPV behavior and women with high, rather than low, fertility were more likely to report that their husband condones IPV. Overall, our results support the notion of a violence backlash corresponding to economic changes for women that accompany urbanization. In contrast, demographic changes associated with urbanization have more variable relationships. Drawing on these results, we suggest future research avenues for better understanding the vulnerability of women to IPV in urbanizing settings.


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