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Examining Adolescent Family Experiences as Risks for Young Adulthood Intimate Partner Violence in Two Longitudinal Samples

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Abstract

Little research has examined multiple family risks that may act as precursors to the cycle of violence, or the link between child maltreatment and subsequent intimate partner violence perpetration. Scholarly work that addresses this gap has important implications for early prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing family violence in adolescence and young adulthood. Based upon the family stress model and the cycle of violence hypothesis, it was hypothesized that adolescent experiences of economic pressure, caregiver depressed mood, and caregiver conflict would increase risk for abusive parenting and that abusive parenting in adolescence would link these family experiences to partner violence perpetration in young adulthood. The model was tested using longitudinal data spanning 12 years from two studies: The Iowa Youth and Families Project (N = 306, 56.2% women), a sample of White, married-parent families, and the Family and Community Health Study (N = 213, 53.3% women), a sample of Black families diverse in terms of family structure. Path model analyses provided support for the proposed model in each sample, highlighting the importance of considering several adolescent family experiences in work on the etiology of partner violence. Policy and practice interventions are offered, such as the need for economic supports for families, accessible mental health care, and relationship education programming for youth.

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Authors’ Contributions

T.S. conceived of the study, participated in its design, performed statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; L.G.S. participated in data collection and interpretation of the analysis and helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved of the final manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01 HL118045), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD080749), the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG055393), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21 DA034457, R01 DA021898, R01 DA018871), the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH48165, R01 MH62666, R01 MH62668, R01 MH62699, 1P30DA02782),the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (2R01AA012768, 3R01AA012768-90S1) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U01CD001645). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA

    Tara E. Sutton

  2. University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Leslie Gordon Simons

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Correspondence to Tara E. Sutton.

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Sutton, T.E., Simons, L.G. Examining Adolescent Family Experiences as Risks for Young Adulthood Intimate Partner Violence in Two Longitudinal Samples. J Youth Adolescence 50, 1797–1810 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01473-5

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