“That’s Just How I Am”: How Partners’ Personality Relates to Intimate Partner Violence, and the Moderating Role of Cumulative Childhood Trauma

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent among young adult couples. The Five-Factor Model of personality, consisting of neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion, is a relevant framework to understand individual risk factor of IPV perpetration and victimization. In particular, neuroticism and agreeableness are robust predictors of IPV. However, studies on the links between personality and IPV are relatively scarce and inconsistent for the remaining dimensions. Research is therefore needed to assess potential moderators of the associations between personality and IPV. Cumulative childhood trauma (CCT; i.e., the accumulation of abuse and/or neglect) is also linked with IPV later in life and may amplify one’s personality disposition toward violence. The present dyadic study examined (1) associations between both partners’ personality dimensions and each other’s IPV perpetration, and (2) whether partners’ CCT moderates these associations.

A sample of 190 young adult couples from the community (18–29 years old) completed self-report questionnaires on personality, CCT, and IPV.

An individual’s neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness were significantly associated with their own and their partner’s IPV perpetration. Results also revealed a significant interaction between openness and CCT. At low levels of CCT, one’s openness was unrelated to both partners’ IPV perpetration. At high levels of CCT, one’s openness was significantly and negatively associated with their own and their partner’s IPV perpetration.

Findings contribute to our knowledge on the interplay between personality and past relational experiences and underscores the need to address personality and childhood trauma history when working with couples experiencing IPV.