Risk factors for child psychological abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for child emotional abuse. Two main directions can be derived from this review. First and foremost, definitional issues must be resolved. Second, some clues as to important future research directions emerged from the current risk factor literature. Distal historical variables (e.g., relationships with fathers perceived as less caring, and being yelled at daily as a child), current enduring personality factors (e.g., aggression and hostility, neuroticism), environmental stressors (e.g., very low income) and proximal variables (verbal and physical aggression between parents) all appear to be related to child psychological abuse. Once definitional issues are resolved, models beginning with these risk factors should be developed and tested.     

Risk factors for male-to-female partner sexual abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for male-to-female sexual abuse. Although partner sexual abuse is a low base rate behavior, which can attenuate correlation coefficients, several relations had moderate effect sizes. Younger (under 30) and older (over 50) women, compared to those between 30 and 50 years old, were more likely to report being victims of partner sexual abuse, as were unemployed women and women from low-income households. Prior unwanted sexual experiences (from a wide variety of perpetrators) and the severity of male-to-female partner physical aggression were associated with male-to-female partner sexual abuse. It is difficult to form conclusions from only six empirical studies. More empirical studies are needed to ascertain the populations most at risk for partner sexual abuse.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence in a Clinical Sample of Men: The Mediating Roles of Adult Attachment and Anger Management

This study examined the association between men’s experience of childhood sexual abuse and later perpetration of intimate partner violence, considering the roles of attachment insecurity and poor anger regulation. The sample was 302 Canadian men undergoing counseling for relationship difficulties or aggression. They completed questionnaires assessing childhood sexual abuse, the two dimensions of attachment insecurity (anxiety and avoidance), anger regulation processes, physical and psychological aggression, and social desirability bias. Path analyses showed that men who experienced childhood sexual abuse scored higher on attachment anxiety, which in turn was associated with aggressive behaviors directly and through four anger-related variables (trait anger, anger-in, anger-out, and low anger control). Attachment-related avoidance predicted psychological aggression, but not physical aggression, through men’s trait anger and anger-in.     

Correlates of intimate partner psychological aggression perpetration in a clinical sample of alcoholic men

This study longitudinally examined correlates of intimate partner psychological aggression in a sample of 178 men seeking treatment for alcoholism and their partners, building on a previous investigation examining correlates of intimate partner physical aggression (Taft et al., 2010). The men were largely Caucasian; average age was 41.0 years. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires that assessed distal and proximal predictors of psychological aggression perpetration. Distal factors, assessed at baseline, included initial alcohol problem severity, beliefs about alcohol, and antisocial personality characteristics. Proximal factors, assessed at baseline and at follow-ups 6 and 12 months later, included alcohol and drug use, relationship adjustment, and anger. Psychological aggression was assessed at all three time points. Findings showed that both groups of variables were associated with psychological aggression perpetration. Beliefs that drinking causes relationship problems and variables related to alcohol consumption exhibited the strongest associations with psychological aggression. The findings are consistent with theoretical models that emphasize both distal and proximal effects of drinking on intimate partner aggression. Implications for clinical interventions and directions for future research are discussed.     

Risk factors for male-to-female partner physical abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for male-to-female partner physical abuse and present effect sizes. We distinguish among the various operationalizations of physical aggression (e.g., men in court mandated abuse programs, men identified through a single item on the CTS). Overall, however, several risk factors showed moderate to strong effect sizes. Perpetrator factors include SES, education, history of child sexual victimization, exposure to parental physical and/or verbal aggression, violent adult models in childhood, non-family aggression by parent, elevated levels of state and trait anger and hostility; various personality disorders; various Axis I psychopathology, particularly depression alcohol and drug abuse; deficits in spouse-specific assertiveness; and attitudes that condone abuse. Risk factors for women being victimized included less education, unemployment, and history of child emotional/verbal victimization.     

Risk factors for family violence: introduction to the special series

The purpose of this series is to review the strength of risk and protective factors for each of seven forms of family violence: partner physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; child physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and child neglect. Definitions of risk and protective factors are presented, as is the five-stage prevention intervention research cycle. The reviews in this series are designed to provide stakeholders with a convenient summary from which to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current risk and protective factor knowledge. Such reviews are necessary to allow for the eventual construction of etiological models that can support the development of preventive intervention programs and research into their efficacy.     

Where do we go from here? Moving toward an integrated approach to family violence

This article discusses patterns across reviews of the risk and protective factors for each of seven forms of family violence: partner physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; child physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and child neglect. We note that both child and partner literatures have large research bases on risk factors for physical abuse, but relatively few articles on psychological or sexual abuse (or child neglect). In addition, co-occurrence of forms of maltreatment within families is high, but little integrative work has been conducted. We argue that the overlap of both occurrence and risk factors across forms of maltreatment suggests that both etiological and intervention models would be improved by considering all forms of maltreatment more explicitly in a family (rather than dyadic) context.     

Validity Concerns in the Measurement of Women’s and Men’s Report of Intimate Partner Violence

The measurement of intimate partner violence (IPV) has proven to be more complex than originally anticipated and content and construct validity need to be greatly improved for IPV assessment. For measurement of IPV in the United States, these validity issues range from providing the most accurate wording for the content domain to controversies as to when violent actions are counted (e.g., self-defense) or whether to include mild aggression (e.g., psychological conflict tactics) that may be more normative and not harmful. The three major forms of IPV (i.e., physical, sexual, and psychological abuse) have distinct validity issues and may require different modalities for assessment. Gender needs to be considered when establishing construct validity due to differences in the meaning of aggression, impacts of abuse, and even patterns of violence for women and men. External threats to validity include potential bias of self-report and motivations when reporting on a partner, discrepancies in couples’ reports, the influence of response styles, and design issues affecting reporting. Traditional methods used to establish validity for IPV scales are reviewed and critiqued. Recommendations for enhancing validity in IPV assessment are provided.     

The Link Between Psychological Abuse Victimization and Physical Health in College Students

Victims of intimate partner violence have a wide array of mental and physical health symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological abuse victimization and physical health symptoms among college students. Male and female college students completed a Web-based survey to assess victimization of different forms of psychological abuse, a variety of physical health symptoms, and current academic stressors. Results found that psychological abuse victimization in the form of dominance and intimidation provided incremental predictive power above and beyond that of academic stressors in determining physical health symptoms regarding the stomach and chest, muscles and skeleton, and nervous system. Future investigation of the role of intimate partner psychological victimization on physical health issues in college students is warranted.     

Internalized Homophobia and Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adult Women’s Same-Sex Relationships

This study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV), internalized homophobia, and psychological maladjustment in a convenience sample of young adult women. Rates of psychological and physical abuse in women’s same-sex relationships were shown to be commensurate to previously reported rates of violence in the IPV literature; rates of sexual coercion were also ascertained. A relationship was found between Moral and Religious Attitudes Toward Lesbianism (MRATL), a dimension of internalized homophobia, and the perpetration of sexual coercion. As expected, internalized homophobia was connected to psychological maladjustment. In addition, both the perpetration of psychological aggression and physical violence were associated with emotional instability. The study findings are discussed within the current body of literature on IPV.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and its relationship with negative cognitive schemas in battered women

This study assessed the association between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder symptoms (PTSD) and maladaptive cognitive schemas among intimate partner violence victims. The sample comprised 114 women from specialized services for victims, who completed measures of physical aggression, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, PTSD, and cognitive schemas. Results showed that 67.54% of women met the diagnostic criteria of PTSD. These women endorsed higher levels of schemas related to mistrust/abuse, vulnerability to harm, defectiveness, shame, enmeshment, abandonment and dependence. A structural equation model showed that the relationship between violence and cognitive schemas was fully mediated by the PTSD symptoms. Finally, the clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Gray, black, and blue: the state of research and intervention for intimate partner abuse among elders

Though not as common as in younger populations, intimate partner abuse (IPA) among elders is a significant and often overlooked problem. In this article, we focus on problems for research and intervention. We begin with a brief review of the phenomena of elder abuse and IPA, highlighting problems resulting from definitional issues and inconsistencies in research methodology. The balance of the paper comprises a discussion of problems for intervention. Drawing from the IPA and elder abuse literatures, risk factors unique to IPA among elders are presented, and limitations of existing screening and risk assessment instruments for use within this context are identified. The focus then shifts to legal considerations when working with elders who have experienced or perpetrated IPA. Our goals are to synthesize the elder abuse and IPA literatures, identify limitations within both, and to reflect upon the state of knowledge regarding IPA among elders. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Borderline but not antisocial personality disorder symptoms are related to self-reported partner aggression in late middle-age

We examined the relationship between personality pathology and the frequency of self-reported psychological and physical partner aggression in a community sample of 872 adults aged 55-64. Previous research suggests that antisocial and borderline personality disorder (PD) symptoms are associated with partner aggression. Controlling for gender, education, alcohol dependence, and other personality pathology, we found that borderline PD symptoms, which include abandonment fears, unstable identity, and affective instability, were significantly related to the frequency of self-reported aggression toward one's partner. This relationship was observed regardless of whether the participant's personality was described by a clinical interviewer, the participant themselves, or an informant chosen by the participant. Further, the relationship between borderline PD symptoms and self-reported partner aggression was moderated by gender such that women were driving the association. Conversely, antisocial PD symptoms, which include deceitfulness, irresponsibility, disregard for rules, and lack of remorse did not significantly account for variance in self-reported partner aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Aggression toward female partners by at-risk young men: the contribution of male adolescent friendships

Deviancy training was examined as a risk factor for physical and psychological aggression toward a female partner among boys and young men in the Oregon Youth Study. Hostile talk about women during videotaped male friendship interactions was hypothesized to indicate a process by which aggression toward women is reinforced within male peer networks. Both antisocial behavior and hostile talk were predicted to be associated with later aggression toward a female partner. Prospective developmental models were tested from 9-10 years of age through young adulthood. Findings indicated that the relation of deviant peer association in adolescence and later aggression toward a partner was mediated by antisocial behavior; observed hostile talk about women with male peers explained additional variance in aggression toward a partner.     

Attachment and Relational Aggression: Power as a Mediating Variable

Evidence illustrates that insecure romantic attachment predicts higher levels of relational aggression. However, no research has attempted to explain that relationship with mediating variables, such as relationship power, which is associated with attachment and partner violence. Data for this study included 457 couples from Wave 2 of the Flourishing Families Study. Actor Partner Interdependence results indicated that insecure attachment was significantly predictive of relational aggression actor effects. There was also a significant partner effect between male insecure attachment and female relational aggression, and power was a significant mediator between attachment and relational aggression for males and females.     

Female intimate partner violence perpetration: stability and predictors of mutual and nonmutual aggression across the first year of college

Cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of mutual and nonmutual intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration were identified in a sample of female college freshmen (N = 499). Using female reports, couples were classified as to whether the relationship included no IPV, female-only IPV, or mutual IPV (male-only IPV was too rare to analyze). Mutual IPV was more common than asymmetrical IPV, and women in mutually violent relationships perpetrated more frequent acts of physical aggression than those in female-only violent relationships. In cross-sectional analyses of IPV in the first semester of college, only partner antisocial behavior and psychological aggression distinguished female-only IPV from no IPV; witnessing mother-to-father aggression, higher psychological aggression, more frequent partner marijuana use, partner antisocial behavior, and, surprisingly, higher relationship satisfaction, discriminated mutual IPV from no IPV. Contrary to hypothesis, first semester (T1) IPV did not predict having a new partner in the second semester (T2); however, women who reported more frequent heavy episodic drinking and lower relationship satisfaction at T1 were more likely to be in a different relationship at T2. Prospective prediction of T2 IPV category failed to support the hypothesis that female-only IPV would escalate to mutual IPV. The majority of couples with female-only IPV reported no IPV at T2. After accounting for T1 IPV, the only significant predictor of T2 IPV category was T1 psychological aggression, suggesting that this may be an appropriate target for IPV prevention efforts among college dating couples.     

Childhood Abuse Types and Physical Health at the Age of 24: Testing Health Risk Behaviors and Psychological Distress as Mediators

This study examines whether adult psychological distress and health risk behaviors mediate the relationship between childhood abuse and physical health in adulthood. A randomly selected population-based sample, with oversampling to include a one-third subgroup of former child protection cases, completed a structured interview. Questions pertained to childhood exposure to abuse, adult psychological distress, physical health, and health risk behaviors. Previous research using this sample had identified three abuse typologies: emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and polyvictimization (physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect). All three typologies were significantly associated with poorer self-reported physical health. Psychological distress and health risk behaviors partially mediated the relationship between nonabuse, sexual abuse, polyvictimization, and physical health, and fully mediated the relationship between emotional abuse and physical health. The results of this study indicate that health risk behaviors and symptoms of psychological distress could contribute to some of the long-lasting consequences of childhood abuse on adult physical health.     

Risk factors for child physical abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for child physical abuse (CPA). An etiological model based on moderate to strongly supported risk factors would begin with distal perpetrator variables of being abused as a child/teen and receiving less family social support as a child. Next might come current family variables such as parents' youth, father's drinking, and family's living in a community that is impoverished and/or has a lower percentage of two parent families. More proximal variables that increase the probability of parents, especially mothers, employing severe or abusive physical tactics could include mothers' dysphoria (e.g., unhappiness, emotional distress, anxiety, loneliness and isolation, depression, somatic complaints, interpersonal problems, feelings of incompetence as a parent, a tendency toward becoming upset and angry), and stress (more stressful life events, including parenting and other family stresses) and coping (most likely a protective factor, including problem solving and social support). Finally, risk factors that are proximal to abuse could include mothers' high reactivity (impulsivity, high negative affect and autonomic nervous system arousal), high-risk parenting (harsh discipline strategies, verbal aggression, yelling), and negative attributions, and children's behavior problems (e.g., socialized aggression, attention deficits, and internalizing and externalizing problems).     

Differentiating corporal punishment from physical abuse in the prediction of lifetime aggression

Corporal punishment and parental physical abuse often co‐occur during upbringing, making it difficult to differentiate their selective impacts on psychological functioning. Associations between corporal punishment and a number of lifetime aggression indicators were examined in this study after efforts to control the potential influence of various forms of co‐occurring maltreatment (parental physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse, sibling abuse, peer bullying, and observed parental violence). College students (N = 1,136) provided retrospective self‐reports regarding their history of aggression and levels of exposure to childhood corporal punishment and maltreatment experiences. Analyses focused on three hypotheses: 1) The odds of experiencing childhood physical abuse would be higher among respondents reporting frequent corporal punishment during upbringing; 2) Corporal punishment scores would predict the criterion aggression indices after control of variance associated with childhood maltreatment; 3) Aggression scores would be higher among respondents classified in the moderate and elevated corporal punishment risk groups. Strong support was found for the first hypothesis since the odds of childhood physical abuse recollections were higher (OR = 65.3) among respondents who experienced frequent (>60 total disciplinary acts) corporal punishment during upbringing. Partial support was found for the second and third hypotheses. Dimensional and categorical corporal punishment scores were associated significantly with half of the criterion measures. These findings support efforts to dissuade reliance on corporal punishment to manage child behavior.

     

A case-controlled field study evaluating ICD-11 proposals for relational problems and intimate partner violence

Background/Objective: Intimate partner relationship problems and intimate partner abuse and neglect — referred to in this paper as “relational problems and maltreatment” — have substantial and well-documented impact on both physical and mental health. However, classification guidelines, such as those found in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), are vague and unlikely to support consistent application. Revised guidelines proposed for ICD-11 are much more operationalized. We used standardized clinical vignette conditions with an international panel of clinicians to test if ICD-11 changes resulted in improved classification accuracy. Method: English-speaking mental health professionals (N = 738) from 65 nations applied ICD-10 or ICD-11 (proposed) guidelines with experimentally manipulated case presentations of presence or absence of (a) individual mental health diagnoses and (b) relational problems or maltreatment. Results: ICD-11, compared with ICD-10, guidelines resulted in significantly better classification accuracy, although only in the presence of co-morbid mental health problems. Clinician factors (e. g., gender, language, world region) largely did not impact classification performance. Conclusions: Despite being considerably more explicated, raters’ performance with ICD-11 guidelines reveals training issues that should be addressed prior to the release of ICD-11 in 2018 (e. g., overriding the guidelines with pre-existing archetypes for relationship problems and physical and psychological abuse).