09-05-2025
Parental Violence Predicts Young Adult Relationship Patterns
Young men exposed to maternal physical intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) while growing up had a 45% higher risk of perpetrating IPVA in their own relationships than those unexposed in the United Kingdom.
METHODOLOGY:
Researchers analysed data of mother-child pairs from the ALSPAC birth cohort in the United Kingdom to examine the risk for IPVA perpetration among young adults aged 18-21 years (men, n = 1139; women, n = 2104) exposed to maternal IPVA.
Maternal IPVA exposure and subtypes were assessed from the mothers' reports across eight timepoints between 2 and 18 years of their children's age.
At the age of 21 years, children reported their own IPVA victimisation and perpetration, including psychological, physical, and sexual subtypes.
Covariates included parental education and social class; maternal marital status, smoking, depression, age at delivery, and parity; birth weight; and prenatal maternal IPVA.
TAKEAWAY:
Exposure to maternal psychological IPVA was positively associated with victimisation among young adult women (relative risk [RR], 1.23; 95% CI, 1.07-1.41), which attenuated after adjusting for covariates.
After adjustment, exposure to maternal physical IPVA was found to be strongly associated with IPVA perpetration among young men (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.05-2.00). Women exposed to maternal partner abuse had a slightly increased risk of perpetrating partner violence themselves (unadjusted RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.93-1.34).
Exposure to maternal IPVA combined with child maltreatment had a higher risk for intergenerational continuity of IPVA, accounting for up to 10% of perpetration cases among young men.
IN PRACTICE:
"While up to 10% of IPVA perpetration cases could be accounted for by combinations of parental IPVA and other ACEs [adverse childhood experiences], up to 90% of young adult IPVA cases could not. This suggests that IPVA prevention efforts should not focus solely on subgroups defined by one or two exposures," the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Annie Herbert, UK Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, England. It was published online on May 01 in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe .
LIMITATIONS:
This study was limited by its inability to assess intergenerational effects of maternal sexual IPVA or coercive control, small sample size, and imperfect measurement of maternal IPVA.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council. Some authors reported receiving funds from various sources and having affiliations with advisory and non-profit boards. Details are provided in the original article.
