The Effects of Childhood Exposure to Marital Violence on Adolescent Gender-Role Beliefs and Dating Violence

Abstract

Children exposed to marital violence in childhood are at risk for engaging in dating violence as adolescents or young adults. Using a longitudinal prospective design, mother-child pairs from violent and nonviolent homes (N = 208) were interviewed about exposure to marital violence twice over a 7-9 year time span. Responses to questions about adolescent gender-typed beliefs, the acceptance of dating violence, and experiences with dating violence were collected during follow-up interviews. Results indicated that adolescents exposed to marital violence during childhood were more likely to justify the use of violence in dating relationships. Possessing traditional attitudes of male-female relationships and justifying relationship violence were associated with higher levels of dating violence perpetration regardless of marital violence exposure. How adolescents thought about dating relationships was more important than whether they witnessed marital violence in childhood. Results have implications for social-cognitive and norm-based interventions.

Diferencias por sexo y variables asociadas con las agresiones sexuales en el noviazgo en universitarios Colombianos

“…Destaca el hecho que los participantes que ejercieron al menos una agresión sexual a su pareja también reportaron haber observado al padre obligar a la madre a tener relaciones sexuales, en un porcentaje significativamente mayor al de los participantes que no habían agredido sexualmente a su pareja, lo cual refuerza la noción de que la observación de violencia en la familia de origen normaliza y legitima la violencia con la propia pareja (Delsol & Margolin, 2004;Lichter & McCloskey, 2004;McMillan & Wathen, 2014) y apoya la aplicación de la teoría del aprendizaje social en la explicación de la transmisión intergeneracional de la violencia (Foshee et al, 1999;Halford et al, 2000).…”

“…Se considera que el atestiguamiento de violencia entre los propios padres normaliza y legitima su utilización con la propia pareja en la adolescencia y la adultez (Delsol & Margolin, 2004;Lichter & McCloskey, 2004;McMillan & Wathen, 2014), planteamiento que se soporta en los resultados de varios estudios que han encontrado una asociación positiva entre la observación de violencia en la familia de origen y las agresiones en el noviazgo (Vagi et al, 2013;Foshee, Bauman & Linder, 1999;Gagné, Lavoie & Hébert, 2005;Kinsfogel & Grych, 2004;Rey-Anacona, 2015;Rich, Gidycz, Warkentin, Lohc & Weiland, 2005).…”

“…Los malos tratos en el noviazgo se han relacionado con actitudes a favor de la violencia (Vagi et al, 2013;Sears et al, 2007), revelándose como una variable mediadora entre la observación de violencia y su ejecución hacia la pareja en la adolescencia y en el matrimonio (Foshee et al, 1999;Lichter & McCloskey, 2004). Por lo tanto, la aceptación de la violencia en el matrimonio podría predecir las agresiones sexuales en el noviazgo y constituir un objetivo de prevención de su ocurrencia en la vida marital.…”

Dating Matters™: The Next Generation of Teen Dating Violence Prevention

“…Individual level factors include youth substance use (O'Donnell et al 2006;Reyes et al 2012), sexual risk behaviors (Cleveland et al 2003), poor emotion regulation (Foshee et al 2010), and acceptance of traditional gender roles (Lichter and McCloskey 2004). Relationship-level factors include conflict in dating relationships (Connolly et al 2010), parental modeling of conflict (Stocker and Richmond 2007), peers experiencing and perpetrating peer and/or dating violence (Foshee et al 2010), and negative parent-child interactions (Ehrensaft and Cohen 2012;Linder and Collins 2005).…”

Typologies of Teen Dating Violence: Implications for Treatment, Prevention, and Future Research

“…Behavioral influence can exist in spheres of varying proximity to the individual in question (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), but for this research the focus is on three very proximal sources of risk and protection: the individual, peers, and the family. Within the individual, factors such as substance use (Reingle, Staras, Jennings, Branchini, & Maldonado-Molina, 2012;Reyes, Foshee, Bauer, & Ennett, 2012;Swart, Seedat, Stevens, & Ricardo, 2002;Temple & Freeman, 2011), attitudes towards dating violence (Lichter & McCloskey, 2004;Swart et al, 2002Foshee et al, 1999, and educational factors (Foshee et al, 2010) have all been associated with TDV perpetration, victimization, or both.…”