The Intergenerational Transmission of Spouse Abuse: A Meta‐Analysis

Abstract

ࡗThe Intergenerational Transmission of Spouse Abuse: A Meta-AnalysisThis study uses meta-analytic procedures to examine the relationship between growing up in a violent home and subsequently becoming part of a violent marital relationship. Our meta-analysis examines published and unpublished research studies that investigate the relationship between witnessing or experiencing family violence in childhood and receiving or perpetrating violence in an adult heterosexual cohabiting or marital relationship. The findings of this meta-analysis suggest there is a weak-to-moderate relationship between growing up in an abusive family and becoming involved in a violent marital relationship. Differential effects of gender and sample type are also discussed.The intergenerational transmission of violence is one of the most often studied explanations of part-Department of Human Development, Virginia Tech, 7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church, VA 22043 (sstith@vt.edu).

Differentiation and Intimate Partner Violence

“…They also revealed a moderate effect sizes between perpetration of physical abuse and six risk factors: traditional sex-role ideology; anger/hostility; history of partner abuse; alcohol use; depression; and career/life stress. Stith et al (2000) in another meta-analysis examining support for intergenerational transmission of spouse abuse found that growing up in an abusive family was positively related to perpetrating spouse abuse and to becoming a victim of spousal abuse. Although the strength of both relationships was small to medium, their meta-analysis provided evidence that growing up in families where IPV occurs is a risk factor for becoming involved in a violent marital relationship.…”

“…A large body of research exists on risk factors associated with intimate partner violence (Stith et al, 2008;Stith et al, 2004b;Stith et al, 2000;Sugarman & Frankel 1996). The risk factors that are a focus of this dissertation are: relational satisfaction; marital conflict; romantic jealousy; depression; anxiety; and attitude about violence towards women.…”

A Latent Class Approach to Understanding the Intergenerational Transmission of Violence in Emerging Adult Relationships

“…Weak-to-moderate support for the IGT of violence hypothesis (Stith et al, 2000) may reflect an overreliance on variable-oriented approaches that do not capture the heterogeneity that exists within experiences of violent interpersonal conduct (Bogat, Levendosky, & Von Eye, 2005;Herrenkohl & Herrenkohl, 2007;Swartout & Swartout, 2012). The failure to adopt a more multidimensional view has hindered our ability to generalize findings across studies, develop more sophisticated theories, and interrupt the transmission of violence across generations.…”

Intimate Partner Violence During the Transition from Prison to the Community: An Ecological Analysis

“…In contrast, men who are unemployed may be more likely to engage in partner abuse because they have less to lose in terms of social status (Sherman et al, 1992 Partner conflict. Scholars also identify intimate partner conflict at the situational/microsystem level within ecological analyses of intimate partner violence (Carlson, 1984;Heise, 1998;Stith et al, 2000). In a national survey of families in the US, Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz (1980) found a direct relationship between the amount of marital conflict in couples and the likelihood of physical violence.…”

“…The majority of prior research regarding the relationships between partner abuse, exposure to family-of-origin violence, and antisocial and borderline personality characteristics has been conducted with offenders in the community (Schumacher et al, 2000;Stith et al, 2000); and evidence regarding these relationships among formerly incarcerated perpetrators of intimate partner violence is lacking. Only a handful of scholars who have investigated partner violence among incarcerated offenders have looked at antisocial and borderline personality characteristics (i.e., Dutton & Hart, 1992;White et al, 2002), and only one study has examined the relationship between exposure to family-of-origin violence and partner abuse among incarcerated offenders (i.e., Dutton & Hart, 1992).…”