Childhood parenting experiences, intimate partner conflict resolution, and adult risk for child physical abuse

• Published in: Child abuse & neglect 1996-11, Vol.20 (11), p.1049-1065
• Main Authors: Merrill, Lex L., Hervig, Linda K., Milner, Joel S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult Children; Adults; Alcohol Abuse; Alcoholism - psychology; At Risk Persons; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Child abuse risk; Childhood abuse; Childhood experiences; Childhood Factors; Childrearing Practices; Comparison; Conflict (Psychology); Conflict Resolution; Domestic violence; Domestic Violence - psychology; Drinking; Early Experience; Family Violence; Female; Florida; Humans; Interpersonal Competence; Interpersonal Relationship; Intimate partner violence; Male; Marital Instability; Medical sciences; Military Personnel; Military Personnel - psychology; Negotiating - psychology; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parenting - psychology; Parents & parenting; Prediction; Predictive Value of Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Regression Analysis; Risk; Risk factors; Sex Differences; Sexual Partners - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; USA; Victimology
• ISSN: 0145-2134; 1873-7757
• DOI: 10.1016/0145-2134(96)00094-4

This study investigated the relationships between conflict resolution tactics experienced during childhood, intimate partner conflict resolution tactics, alcohol problems, and adult child physical abuse risk. Participants were 1,544 Navy recruit trainees who volunteered to complete measures of parenting practices and spousal physical violence experienced during their childhood, the conflict resolution techniques used in their intimate relationships, their personal history of alcohol problems, and child physical abuse potential. Regression analyses indicated that the receipt of intimate partner physical violence accounted for the most variance in predicting who would inflict physical violence against an intimate partner; and the infliction of intimate partner physical violence accounted for the most variance in predicting who would receive physical violence from an intimate partner. Other analyses indicated that among the parent and intimate partner physically violent events, parent-child violence experienced during childhood accounted for the most variance in explaining child abuse risk in females and males, with the infliction of intimate partner violence adding only to the prediction of child abuse risk in females. Analyses also revealed that after the effects of violent experiences were removed, alcohol problems contributed significantly, albeit very modestly, to the prediction of who expressed intimate partner physical violence for males and females, who was physically injured by an intimate partner (in the case of male injury), and who was at risk of child physical abuse for males and females. Cette étude analyse l'influence des tactiques de résolution de conflits expérimentées au cours de l'enfance sur celles appliquées aux conflits de couple, sur les problèmes d'alcool et le risque de maltraiter son enfant à l'âge adulte. Les participants sont 1.544 recrus de la Marine à l'instruction, qui se sont portés volontaires pour être testés quant à leurs pratiques parentales, la violence physique dans le couple vécue au cours de leur enfance, leur historie personnelle de problèmes d'alcool et leur potentiel à maltraiter leur enfant. Des analyses de régression indiquent que le fait d'être victime de violence physique de la part de son partenaire intime est responsable de la plupart de la variance qui prédit celui qui infligera de la violence physique à un partenaire intime. De même le fait d'infliger des violences physiques à son partenaire intime est respon