The impact of parental intimate partner abuse on young adult relationships
Intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) has the potential to be physically and psychologically damaging across generations. Childhood exposure to IPVA may place young people at greater risk of IPVA within their own relationships. It is estimated that a quarter of UK adults have grown up in a household where parental IPVA has taken place.
The research team, including VISION Director Professor Gene Feder and led by Dr Annie Herbert (University of Bristol), aimed to provide estimates for the relationship between IPVA among mothers, and IPVA in their children’s own relationships as young adults.
They studied the intergenerational effects of prospectively-reported IPVA in a UK general population birth cohort and examined effects according to different subtypes of maternal IPVA victimisation (psychological [and to an extent, controlling behaviours], and physical) and young adult IPVA victimisation and perpetration (psychological [including controlling behaviours], physical, and sexual). This is the first prospective longitudinal study on intergenerational effects of IPVA in the UK.
The researchers found a modest association between maternal IPVA (partner-to-mother victimisation) and IPVA victimisation among their children as young adult women, and between maternal IPVA and IPVA perpetration in young adult men. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the association for victimisation among women lessened, but a weak positive association for perpetration among young men remained. This finding was consistent with some previous reviews of studies on intergenerational effects of IPVA. The strongest association was for perpetration by men growing up around physical IPVA victimisation.
The findings showed that maternal IPVA victimisation is responsible for up to 10% of cases of IPVA in young adult relationships, largely concentrated amongst young people who experienced complex adversity including child maltreatment. Services supporting domestic violence cases in families should consider wider trauma, including history of child maltreatment.
To download: The impact of parental intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) on young adult relationships: a UK general population cohort study – The Lancet Regional Health – Europe
To cite: The impact of parental intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) on young adult relationships: a UK general population cohort study. Herbert, Annie et al. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, Volume 0, Issue 0, 101278
For further information, please contact Annie at annie.herbert@bristol.ac.uk
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