About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 22. Social Relationships

Abstract

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According to social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are more likely to reproduce violent behaviors in their own romantic relationships during adolescence. This hypothesis suggests that IPV is learned and normalized within the home environment, shaping young people's future behaviors (Smith et al., 2019). However, empirical results show that the reality is more nuanced, as exposure to IPV is only weakly associated with the reproduction of violent behaviors in adolescents, and the intergenerational association can vary according to the gender of both the parent (Moretti et al. 2014) and the adolescent (Stith et al., 2004). Despite these insights, few studies have used population-based samples or prospective longitudinal designs to examine the intergenerational continuity of IPV in adolescents. The objectives of the current study are: (1) to test the association between IPV in parents and IPV (a) experienced and (b) perpetrated by their adolescents, (2) to examine whether intergenerational associations vary according to the gender of the parent and the adolescent and (3) to examine whether the intergenerational associations remain after controlling for the potential confounding effects of socioeconomic status (SES).

The sample consisted of 973 families from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a representative cohort of children born in Quebec in 1997-98. At least once over three assessment points during the first five years of the child's life, 3,3% of fathers and 6,3% of mothers reported experiencing physical IPV. Adolescents reported psychological, sexual and physical IPV experienced and perpetrated at ages 15 and 17, using the Conflict Tactic Scale. Among the participants, 39.6% adolescent girls and 25.5% boys reported experiencing IPV, while 33.2% of girls and 17.1% of boys acknowledged having perpetrated IPV.

Logistic regression analyses indicated that the interaction between the adolescent’s sex and father-reported IPV was significant (odds ratio; OR = 0,07, p = 0,029), while the interaction between the adolescent’s sex and mother-reported IPV approached significance (OR = 0,23, p = .06) for predicting adolescents’ experienced IPV. Therefore, we analysed results separately for girls and boys (Table 1).

The results of this study reveal significant differences in the predictors of IPV experienced and perpetrated by adolescent girls vs. boys. IPV experienced by both the father and mother were associated with girls’ experienced IPV, but this relationship was confounded by SES. Only IPV experienced by the father was associated with girls’ perpetrated IPV, and this association was robust to controlling for SES. Future research could attempt to understand the mechanisms underlying this prominent role of the father’s experience on girl’s perpetration of IPV. For boys, none of the factors examined, including parents’ IPV and SES, were associated with experienced IPV, suggesting that, among boys, other factors, such as peer influences or personal characteristics, may play a more important role in IPV and should be the object of future research. However, we were unable to include in the boys perpetrated IPV models the father’s IPV due to the small frequency of boys with perpetrated IPV whose father reported IPV, which represents a limitation of the study.

Author information

Author	Role
Abygaelle Côté, Université Laval	Presenting author
Amélie Petitclerc, Université Laval	Non-presenting author

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