Introduction to the Special Issue on the Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and Child Maltreatment

Paid Family Leave: An Upstream Intervention to Prevent Family Violence

“…The factors that put families at risk for IPV are also associated with increased risk for child maltreatment, including living in poverty, unemployment, economic stress, and lower educational attainment (Guedes et al, 2016 ). Grasso et al ( 2021 ) note these forms of family violence have persistent overlap, and emerging research demonstrates the COVID-19 pandemic has likely reinforced these relationships, increased the dangers within families, and made the need for policy response more urgent. Furthermore, the costs of these forms of family violence are large.…”

Child maltreatment and parental domestic violence and abuse, co-occurrence and the effect on lifetime outcomes in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

“…Parental DVA shares common risk factors with CM, with estimates of co-occurrence ranging from 30% to 60% of households where either CM or parental DVA is reported ( Edleson, 1999 ; Herrenkohl et al, 2008 ; Walby & Olive, 2014 ), making the separation of the impact on child witnesses to parental DVA from those of CM, problematic. Whilst the extent of harms from parental DVA exposure has been explored ( Grasso et al, 2021 ; Jouriles et al, 2008 ), a comprehensive picture for the UK child population is not yet available, given a lack of prospective studies applicable to the UK setting, an inability to sufficiently distinguish harms from parental DVA from those of CM ( Oliver et al, 2019 ; Walby, 2009 ), and difficulty in accounting for multiple interrelated sociodemographic factors that may potentially influence both exposure and outcome. The potential for polyvictimisation to cause disproportionately large impacts survivors ( Radford et al, 2013 ), make it important to if the full effects on exposed children and the associated societal costs are to be fully captured.…”

Prospective Associations Between Early Childhood Intimate Partner Violence Exposure and Middle Childhood Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology

“…IPV exposure during infancy can also indirectly impact child development via increased use of harsh (Grasso et al, 2016; Levendosky et al, 2006) or less sensitive (Coe et al, 2021) parenting. Moreover, IPV exposure during infancy may serve as a proxy for future maltreatment exposure, given findings that documentation of IPV in past child maltreatment reports predicts future allegations of maltreatment (Grasso et al, 2021b). Therefore, researching the specific impact of IPV exposure during infancy while controlling for the impact of co-occurring adversities may allow for clearer conclusions on the effects of early exposure to IPV during a key developmental period.…”