Family-of-Origin Violence and College Men's Reports of Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: The Role of Maladaptive Interpersonal Patterns

The predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) have received extensive attention in the literature, including a well-established link between exposure to violence in the family-of-origin and subsequent perpetration of IPV in adolescence and adulthood. However, a model that provides for potential mediating factors in this relationship would prove informative in understanding the processes involved in the development of IPV perpetration. The current study used a sample of college men (N = 228) to examine a model whereby violence in the family of origin is proposed to contribute to the development of hostile-dominant interpersonal problems (HDIP), which increase the likelihood of later IPV perpetration in adolescence and young adulthood. Path analytic results indicated that the proposed model was a good fit to the data. Specifically, sexual and psychological child abuse were significant predictors of HDIP, and HDIP significantly predicted all 3 types of IPV perpetration (i.e., physical, sexual, and psychological). In addition, childhood physical abuse was marginally related to HDIP and directly related to physical IPV perpetration in the path model. Although exposure to interparental violence did not predict HDIP or IPV perpetration in the path model, exposure to interparental violence was related to HDIP and physical IPV at the bivariate level. Future research suggestions are provided to aid in increasing the current knowledge regarding the developmental processes involved in the intergenerational transmission of violence.