Prior research on patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) has documented changes over time, but few studies have focused directly on IPV desistance processes. This analysis identifies unique features of IPV, providing a rationale for the focus on this form of behavior cessation. We develop a life-course perspective on social learning as a conceptual framework and draw on qualitative interviews (n = 89) elicited from a sample of young adults who participated in a larger longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study). The respondents' backgrounds reflected a range of persistence and desistance from IPV perpetration. Our analyses revealed that relationship-based motivations and changes were central features of the narratives of successful desisters, whether articulated as a stand-alone theme or in tandem with other potential “hooks” for change. The analysis provides a counterpoint to individualistic views of desistance processes, highlighting ways in which social experiences foster attitude shifts and associated behavioral changes that respondents tied to this type of behavior change. The analyses of persisters and those for whom change seemed to be a work in progress provide points of contrast and highlight barriers that limit a respondent's desistance potential. We describe implications for theories of desistance as well as for IPV prevention and intervention efforts.

Although much research examines the association between fathers’ relationship aggression and mothers’ parenting, little attention is given to mothers’ aggression, mutual aggression, or fathers’ parenting. Using a sample of coresiding couples from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 973), the authors examine the association between mothers’ and fathers’ relationship aggression, measured as frequency and perpetration-victimization types (mutual, mother-only, father-only), and mothers’ and fathers’ parenting. Fixed effects regression models show that fathers’ aggression—father-only or mutual—is positively related to mothers’ parenting stress, whereas father-only or mother-only aggression is related to fathers’ stress. For both parents, aggression perpetration is negatively related to their own engagement with children. Mother-only aggression is negatively related to mothers’ spanking and positively related to fathers’ spanking. These findings suggest the importance of examining both parents’ aggression and perpetrators’ as well as victims’ parenting to better understand the link between relationship aggression and parenting.

Prior researchers have documented significant effects of witnessing marital violence and experiencing coercive parenting on adult children's own later risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). To develop a more comprehensive portrait of social influence processes, the current study examined the effect of family background relying on interviews with a large, heterogeneous sample of emerging adults, and included an assessment of the degree to which their peers' attitudes and behaviors contributed to risk, net of familial effects. Methodology/Approach: Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n = 928) we examined associations between family violence indicators, peers' behaviors and attitudes regarding partner violence, and respondents' self-reports of IPV among emerging adults ages 22-29. We used ordinary least squares regression, and controlled for other known correlates of IPV. Findings: For men and women, we found a significant relationship between witnessing parental violence during adolescence and IPV in emerging adulthood, as well as a positive relationship between current peers' own IPV experience and attitudes and respondents' intimate partner violence in emerging adulthood. We also found that when respondents indicated higher, compared with lower, peer involvement in partner violence, the effects of parental violence were stronger. Originality/Value of Paper: We brought new and more comprehensive questions assessing peers' IPV to this body of research, and extended the examination of both familial and peer influences on IPV into emerging adulthood.