Cumulative victimization as a predictor of intimate partner violence among young mothers.

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of cumulative victimization on intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization among young mothers. Method: With a cross-sectional design that utilized the life history calendar method and was grounded in developmental traumatology and life course stress theory, we interviewed 60 young mothers (ages 16 to 21) about their retrospective yearly experiences with community and school violence, witnessing IPV, physical maltreatment by a caregiver, and sexual victimization, beginning at age 5; we retrospectively assessed for annual IPV victimization beginning with 1st dating partner. We obtained an average of 15 years of data per participant, which we analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results: This high-risk sample reported much higher rates of victimization than did similarly aged national samples, with lifetime prevalence of each type ranging from 60% to 84%. Cumulative victimization during childhood was positively associated with cumulative victimization during adolescence. A higher rate of cumulative victimization during childhood was associated with a steeper increase in the rate of IPV victimization during adolescence, after controlling for a range of predictors, though childhood cumulative victimization was not linked to IPV at age 16. Conclusions: Consistent with developmental traumatology and life course stress theory, which emphasize the role of early and proliferating stressors in shaping poor outcomes, childhood experiences with cumulative victimization may increase young mothers' vulnerability to IPV victimization during adolescence. Researchers should embrace innovative methods to explore developmental trajectories of cumulative victimization, especially among high-risk groups; clinical practice and dating violence interventions must be evidence-based and trauma-informed to be effective.

Child Maltreatment and Polyvictimization as Predictors of Intimate Partner Violence in Women From the General Population of Quebec

“…Similarly, the rate of sexual victimization (40%) in IPV victims was more than twice as high as that of the general population (18%; Stoltenborgh et al, 2015). These results correspond to those obtained in American (Kennedy, Bybee, Palma-Ramirez, & Jacobs, 2017) and European (Aakvaag et al, 2017) samples of women. Thus, the present findings clearly demonstrate that the association between child maltreatment and IPV is not restricted to specific clinical populations suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental disorders.…”

Raising Spanish Children With an Antisocial Tendency: Do We Know What the Optimal Parenting Style Is?

“…Two sample items are as follows: “Painting or damaging the walls of the school/institute” and “Attacking or hitting strangers.” Because all the statements were about the participants’ years in high school, we included the following sentence in the instructions: “Listed below are behaviors that could be performed by adolescent students. Please read each statement and decide to what extent it describes your case during adolescence” (Collette, Pakzad, & Bergheul, 2015; Kennedy, Bybee, Palma-Ramirez, & Jacobs, 2017; Rebellon & Straus, 2017). Participants responded on a 3-point scale ranging from 1 ( never ) to 3 ( two or more times ).…”

Patterns of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Survivors’ Help-Seeking

“…The relationship between victimization patterns and their outcomes becomes more complicated when multiple types of victimization are taken into account. The complexity may come from the fact that victimization experiences might not happen all at once, but accumulate over the course of a life (Cuevas, Sabina, & Picard, 2010; Kennedy, Bybee, Palma-Ramirez, & Jacobs, 2016). Enduring multiple types of victimization has been shown to be connected with elevated rates of psychiatric disorders, alcohol use, and anger expression (Armour & Sleath, 2014).…”