Abstract
The study investigates the impact of psychological well-being, coping style, and maltreatment types on adult partner maltreatment patterns. A large sample of undergraduates completed assessments measuring history of childhood violence exposure, psychological distress, coping, and adult partner maltreatment. The multiply abused group (childhood physical abuse and witnessing family violence) experienced the highest levels of all forms of adult maltreatment, followed by the childhood physical abuse group. As childhood victimization became more severe, the relationship between childhood victimization and adult partner maltreatment became more direct. The current study highlights that individuals exposed to a greater degree of childhood victimization are more vulnerable to adult maltreatment because there are few mediators which may prevent or decrease risk for adult maltreatment. The results suggest that treatment and prevention efforts with victims of interpersonal violence should foster individualized coping skills and address specific psychopathology depending upon the individual’s childhood abuse history.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, P. C. (2009). Childhood trauma, attachment, and abuse by multiple partners. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 1(1), 78–88.
Arata, C. M. (2000). From child victim to adult victim: a model for predicting sexual revictimization. Child Maltreatment, 5(1), 28–38.
Banyard, V. L., Williams, L. M., Saunders, B. E., & Fitzgerald, M. M. (2008). The complexity of trauma types in the lives of women in families referred for family violence: multiple mediators of mental health. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78(4), 394–404.
Becker-Lausen, E., Sanders, B., & Chinsky, J. M. (1995). Mediation of abusive childhood experiences: depression, dissociation, and negative life outcomes. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65(4), 560–573.
Bender, M., Cook, S., & Kaslow, N. (2003). Social support as a mediator of revictimization of low-income african american women. Violence and Victims, 18(4), 419–431.
Bensley, L., Van Eenwyk, J., & Simmons, K. (2003). Childhood family violence history and women’s risk for intimate partner violence and poor health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 25(1), 38–44.
Black, D. S., Sussman, S., & Unger, J. B. (2010). A further look at the intergenerational transmission of violence: witnessing interparental violence in emerging adulthood. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(6), 1022–1042.
Carlson, B. E. (1997). A stress and coping approach to intervention with abused women. Family Relations, 46(3), 291–298.
Chan, K., Brownridge, D. A., Yan, E., Fong, D. T., & Tiwari, A. (2011). Child maltreatment polyvictimization: rates and short-term effects on adjustment in a representative Hong Kong sample. Psychology of Violence, 1(1), 4–15.
Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The brief symptom inventory: an introductory report. Psychological Medicine: A Journal of Research in Psychiatry and the Allied Sciences, 13(3), 595–605.
Desai, S., Arias, I., Thompson, M. P., & Basile, K. C. (2002). Childhood victimization and subsequent adult revictimization assessed in a nationally representative sample of women and men. Violence and Victims, 17(6), 639–653.
Doumas, D. M., Pearson, C. L., Elgin, J. E., & McKinley, L. L. (2008). Adult attachment as a risk factor for intimate partner violence: the ‘mispairing’ of partners’ attachment styles. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(5), 616–634.
Dyson, R., & Renk, K. (2006). Freshmen adaptation to university life: depressive symptoms, stress, and coping. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(10), 1231–1244.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1985). If it changes it must be a process: a study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 150–170.
Ford-Gilboe, M., Wuest, J., Varcoe, C., Davies, L., Merritt-Gray, M., Campbell, J., et al. (2009). Modelling the effects of intimate partner violence and access to resources on women’s health in the early years after leaving an abusive partner. Social Science & Medicine, 68(6), 1021–1029.
Futa, K. T., Nash, C. L., Hansen, D. J., & Garbin, C. P. (2003). Adult survivors of childhood abuse: an analysis of coping mechanisms used for stressful childhood memories and current stressors. Journal of Family Violence, 18, 227–239.
Gover, A. R., Kaukinen, C., & Fox, K. A. (2008). The relationship between violence in the family of origin and dating violence among college students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(12), 1667–1693.
Haugaard, J. J., & Emery, R. E. (1989). Methodological issues in child sexual abuse research. Child Abuse & Neglect, 13(1), 89–100.
Haj-Yahia, M. M., & de Zoysa, P. (2008). Rates and psychological effects of exposure to family violence among Sri Lankan university students. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32(10), 994–1002.
Hetzel, M. D., & McCanne, T. R. (2005). The roles of peritraumatic dissociation, child physical abuse, and child sexual abuse in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder and adult victimization. Child Abuse & Neglect, 29(8), 915–930.
Higgins, D. J., & McCabe, M. P. (2000). Multi-type maltreatment and the long-term adjustment of adults. Child Abuse Review, 9(1), 6–18.
Joseph, S., Govender, K., & Bhagwanjee, A. (2006). ‘I can’t see him hit her again, I just want to run away.. .hide and block my ears’: a phenomenological analysis of a sample of children’s coping responses to exposure to domestic violence. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 6(4), 23–45.
Kieffer, K. M., & MacDonald, G. (2011a). Exploring factors that affect score reliability and variability: in the Ways of Coping Questionnaire reliability coefficients: a meta-analytic reliability generalization study. Journal of Individual Differences, 32(1), 26–38.
Lehmann, P. (1997). The development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of child witnesses to mother assault. Journal of Family Violence, 12(3), 241–257.
Lepistö, S., Åstedt-Kurki, P., Joronen, K., Luukkaala, T., & Paavilainen, E. (2010). Adolescents experiences of coping with domestic violence. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(6), 1232–1245.
Katz, L., & Woodin, E. M. (2002). Hostility, hostile detachment, and conflict engagement in marriages: effects on child and family functioning. Child Development, 73(2), 636–651.
Kennedy, A. C. (2008). An ecological approach to examining cumulative violence exposure among urban, African American adolescents. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 25(1), 25–41.
Kieffer, K. M., & MacDonald, G. (2011b). Exploring factors that affect score reliability and variability: in the Ways of Coping Questionnaire reliability coefficients: a meta-analytic reliability generalization study. Journal of Individual Differences, 32(1), 26–38.
Kubany, E. S., Leisen, M., Kaplan, A. S., Watson, S. B., Haynes, S. N., Owens, J. A., et al. (2000). Development and preliminary validation of a brief broad-spectrum measure of trauma exposure: the traumatic life events questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 12(2), 210–224.
Limke, A., Showers, C. J., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2010). Emotional and sexual maltreatment: anxious attachment mediates psychological adjustment. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(3), 347–367.
Miller, D. K. (2006). The effects of childhood physical abuse or childhood sexual abuse in battered women’s coping mechanisms: obsessive-compulsive tendencies and severe depression. Journal of Family Violence, 21, 185–195.
Miller-Perrin, C. L., Perrin, R. D., & Kocur, J. L. (2009). Parental physical and psychological aggression: psychological symptoms in young adults. Child Abuse & Neglect, 33(1), 1–11.
Neufeld, J., McNamara, J. R., & Ertl, M. (1999). Incidence and prevalence of dating partner abuse and its relationship to dating practices. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14, 125–137.
Orcutt, H. K., Erickson, D. J., & Wolfe, J. (2002). A prospective analysis of trauma exposure: the mediating role of PTSD symptomatology. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15(3), 259–266.
Pico-Alfonso, M. A., Garcia-Linares, M. I., Celda-Navarro, N., Blasco-Ros, C., Echeburúa, E., & Martinez, M. (2006). The impact of physical, psychological, and sexual intimate male Partner violence on women’s mental health: depressive symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder, state anxiety, and suicide. Journal of Women’s Health, 15, 599–611.
Popescu, M. L., Drumm, R., Dewan, S., & Rusu, C. (2010). Childhood victimization and its impact on coping behaviors for victims of intimate partner violence. Journal of Family Violence, 25, 575–585.
Próspero, M., & Kim, M. (2009). Mutual partner violence: mental health symptoms among female and male victims in four racial/ethnic groups. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24(12), 2039–2056.
Rabinowitz, A. R., & Arnett, P. A. (2009). A longitudinal analysis of cognitive dysfunction, coping, and depression in multiple sclerosis. Neuropsychology, 23(5), 581–591.
Ramos, B. M., Carlson, B. E., & McNutt, L. (2004). Lifetime abuse, mental health, and African American women. Journal of Family Violence, 19(3), 153–164.
Renner, L. M., & Slack, K. S. (2006). Intimate partner violence and child maltreatment: understanding intra- and intergenerational connections. Child Abuse and Neglect, 30, 500–617.
Risser, H. J., Hetzel-Riggin, M. D., Thomsen, C. J., & McCanne, T. R. (2006). PTSD as a mediator of sexual revictimization: the role of reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal symptoms. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 19(5), 687–698.
Ritter, J., Stewart, M., Bernet, C., Coe, M., & Brown, S. A. (2002). Effects of childhood exposure to familial alcoholism and family violence on adolescent substance use, conduct problems, and self-esteem. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15(2), 113–122.
Russell, D., Springer, K. W., & Greenfield, E. A. (2010). Witnessing domestic abuse in childhood as an independent risk factor for depressive symptoms in young adulthood. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34(6), 448–453.
Şahin, N. H., Timur, S., Ergin, A. B., Taşpinar, A., Balkaya, N. A., & Çubukçu, S. (2010). Childhood trauma, type of marriage and self-esteem as correlates of domestic violence in married women in turkey. Journal of Family Violence, 25, 661–668.
Schaaf, K. K., & McCanne, T. R. (1998). Relationship of childhood sexual, physical, and combined sexual and physical abuse to adult victimization and posttraumatic stress disorder. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22(11), 1119–1133.
Schnider, K. R., Elhai, J. D., & Gray, M. J. (2007). Coping style use predicts posttraumatic stress and complicated grief symptom severity among college students reporting a traumatic loss. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54(3), 344–350.
Schumm, J. A., Hobfoll, S. E., & Keogh, N. J. (2004). Revictimization and interpersonal resource loss predicts ptsd amongwomen in substance-use treatment. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17, 173–181.
Stith, S. M., Smith, D. B., Penn, C. E., Ward, D. B., & Tritt, D. (2004). Intimate partner physical abuse perpetration and victimization risk factors: a meta-analytic review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 10(1), 65–98.
Sullivan, T. P., Schroeder, J. A., Dudley, D. N., & Dixon, J. M. (2010). Do differing types of victimization and coping strategies influence the type of social reactions experienced by current victims of intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 16, 638–657.
Taft, C. T., Resick, P. A., Watkins, L. E., & Panuzio, J. (2009). An investigation of posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive symptomatology among female victims of interpersonal trauma. Journal of Family Violence, 24(6), 407–415.
Tolman, R. M. (1999). The validation of the psychological maltreatment of women inventory. Violence and Victims, 14(1), 25–35.
van Hooren, S. H., Vermeiren, J., & Bolman, C. (2008). The relationship between coping styles, depressive symptoms and somatic complaints among depressive inpatients. Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 64(2), 78–86.
Whiting, J. B., Simmons, L. A., Havens, J. R., Smith, D. B., & Oka, M. (2009). Intergenerational transmission of violence: the influence of self-appraisals. Mental Disorders and Substance Abuse, Journal of Family Violence, 24, 639–648.
Wilkinson, R. B., Walford, W. A., & Espenes, G. (2000). Coping styles and psychological health in adolescents and young adults: a comparison of moderator and main effects models. Australian Journal of Psychology, 52(3), 155–162.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Kayla Suttles and the members of the Coping, Stress, and Trauma Research Lab for their assistance in data collection.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hetzel-Riggin, M.D., Meads, C.L. Childhood Violence and Adult Partner Maltreatment: The Roles of Coping Style and Psychological Distress. J Fam Viol 26, 585–593 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9395-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9395-z