IPV and the Intergenerational Transmission of Violence

• NCJ Number: 253257
• Date Published: Unknown
• Award: Effects of Child Maltreatment, Cumulative Victimization Experiences, and Proximal Life Stress on Adult Outcomes of Substance Use, Mental Health Problems, and Antisocial Behavior

Annotation

This article summarizes research from the Lehigh Longitudinal Study on child maltreatment and exposure to domestic violence (DV) to determine the association between child maltreatment and later experiences of adult interpersonal violence.

Abstract

The Lehigh study is one of the few ongoing extended longitudinal studies seeking to determine whether children exposed to abuse and DV when they were young were at higher risk to perpetrate and re-experience violence in their own relationships compared to children not exposed to DV and abuse. It began in the 1970s with a sample of 457 preschool-aged children, some of whom encountered various forms of adversity when they were young. The children are now adults, and the study has assessed them several times since they and their families were first assessed in 1976-1977.