Family of Origin and Peer Influences on Intimate Partner Violence during Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

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.

Girls’ and Women’s Violence: The Question of General Versus Uniquely Gendered Causes

“…Relying on a somewhat more general index of peer behavior, Schnurr and Lohman (2008) found an effect of antisocial peers on both women and men’s IPV reports. Minter et al (2015) recently analyzed interview data from the TARS study, and results revealed that peer IPV and attitudes of peers reflecting tolerance of IPV under specific conditions were both related to IPV reports. This analysis controlled for witnessing parents’ IPV, scales tapping respondent and partner delinquency and other family and sociodemographic characteristics, as well as reports of earlier IPV.…”