Intergenerational Childhood Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence, Maternal Psychological Distress, and Physical Injury Victimization in Emerging Adults

Intimate partner violence (IPV) can have detrimental consequences, including later IPV victimization for children exposed to IPV.

This study, using a dyadic design, investigates the mediating role of emerging adults’ childhood exposure to IPV in the association between their mothers’ childhood exposure to IPV and their own experience of physical injury in intimate relationships, as well as the moderating role of mother’s psychological distress in these associations.

Mothers (36–66 y.o.) and emerging adults (18–25 y.o.) completed online questionnaires (N = 186 dyads).

Results showed that maternal exposure to IPV in childhood was indirectly associated with emerging adults’ experiences of physical injury in intimate relationships through emerging adults’ childhood exposure to IPV, and that the association between mothers’ and emerging adults’ childhood exposures to IPV was only significant at high levels of maternal distress.

Accessible services to support the mental health of survivors of childhood exposure to IPV may be promising in breaking intergenerational cycles of IPV.