The impact of parental intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) on young adult relationships: a UK general population cohort study

Abstract

Background
There is uncertainty about the extent to which parental intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) increases risk of IPVA in the next generation. We aimed to provide estimates for the relationship between IPVA among mothers, and IPVA in their children’s own relationships as young adults.

Methods
Using data from 3243 families from a UK birth cohort, we estimated risks of IPVA victimisation and perpetration among women and men aged 18–21 (a validated measure captured at age 21), according to mother’s IPVA victimisation status by age 18 (overall and separately for physical and psychological subtypes; a non-validated measure: 2–13 questions asked at ages 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 18).

Findings
Unadjusted relative risks (RR) for associations between maternal IPVA victimisation and subtypes of young adult IPVA ranged 0.91 to 1.54. There was a positive association between maternal psychological IPVA and subsequent victimisation among their children as young adult women (RR 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07 to 1.41), attenuating to the null after adjustment for prenatal maternal IPVA and socio-economic factors. The strongest adjusted association was between maternal physical IPVA and perpetration among men (RR 1.45, 95% CI: 1.05 to 2.00). Maternal physical IPVA accounted for 10% of perpetration cases among men (CI: 2% to 16%). Most of this 10% was represented by young adults from families who experienced both maternal IPVA victimisation and child maltreatment.

Interpretation
Interventions supporting young boys exposed to maternal physical IPVA could reduce risks of them using violence or abuse in their relationships. Services supporting families experiencing IPVA should consider co-occurring wider family adversity, which carried higher risk for intergenerational continuity of IPVA.