Child-to-Parent Violence as an Intervening Variable in the Relationship between Inter-Parental Violence Exposure and Dating Violence

Abstract

The exposure of adult children to inter-parental violence is an indirect form of victimization which has not been widely investigated in relation to its consequences in adulthood. The main goal of this study was to analyze predictors of dating violence based on an integrated model of intergenerational transmission of violence with the assessment of potential indirect effects of inter-parental violence exposure on dating violence through child-to-parent violence and sexism. A total of 847 college students participated in this study, ranging from 18 to 25 years of age. Inter-parental violence exposure plays a relevant role in dating violence, with indirect effects through child-to-parent violence and sexism. These results support social learning theory in explaining the intergenerational transmission of violence and indicate that further attention should be paid to children exposed to inter-parental violence. Intervention models to prevent the perpetration of dating violence should include the prevention of inter-parental violence exposure and child-to-parent violence.

Keywords: child-to-parent violence; dating violence; family violence; inter-parental violence; sexism.

Figure 1

Structural model predicting dating violence based on 847 participants from a university student population. All estimated parameters are standardized. All factor loadings and regression coefficients are significant at p < 0.05. The SEM model included participants who had had heterosexual dating relationship.