1. NCFR—November, 2004 Michael P. Johnson Alison Cares Penn State
Effects and Non-effects of Childhood Experiences of Family Violence on Adult Partner Violence
NCFR—November, 2004
Michael P. Johnson
Alison Cares
Penn State
Photos from Donna Ferrato, Living with the Enemy.
Gender, Control, and Domestic Violence

2. What Are the Effects? Mixed Opinions
“…the most widely accepted risk marker for the occurrence of partner violence” (Kantor & Jasinski, 1998)
Metaphors of “intergenerational transmission” & “cycle of violence”
JMF decade review refers to non-transmission (Johnson & Ferraro, 2000)
Mixed findings of meta-analysis (Stith et al., 2000)
Average effect sizes quite small (.10)
Larger effects for agency samples (.30)

3. Core Research Question
Are the effects of childhood experiences of family violence different for different types of adult partner violence?

4. Types of Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate Terrorism
Power and control
Violent Resistance
Resisting the intimate terrorist
Situational Couple Violence
Escalation of situational conflict
Mutual Violent Control
Two intimate terrorists

5. Hypothesized Effects of Childhood Experiences on Adult Partner Violence
Strong effects only for intimate terrorism
IT is a function of general orientations
VR is a response to partner violence
SCV is a reaction to immediate situation
Strong effects only for men
Successful same-sex model
Reinforced by patriarchal social context
Strong effects only for parental partner violence
Similarity to adult behavior

6. Sample Pittsburgh, 1978 (Frieze, 1983)
Married women from shelters and courts, matched with married women living on the same block
Face-to-face interviews with wives (n=272)
Data on self and husband, reported by wives
Lots of missing data on husbands’ childhoods

7. Measures
Types created from data regarding both partners’ violence and non-violent control behaviors
Violence: Has he ever actually slapped or pushed you or used other physical force with you?
Control scale: 11 items; alphas = .76, .45; dichotomized on basis of cluster analysis
Childhood parental partner violence
Single item: Was there ever any physical violence between his parents that you know of?
Childhood parent-child violence
Scale: 4 items; alphas = .82, .76
“When you and your husband go places together, who decides where you will go?” “If you disagree [about the type of people you like], which people do the two of you spend more time with?” “Does your husband know where you are when you are not together?” “Are there places you might like to go but don’t because you feel your husband wouldn’t want you to?” “Do you generally do what your husband asks you to do?” “Who decides how the family money will be spent in terms of major expenses?” “Does he ever try to get what he wants by doing any of the following? (Emotionally withdraws, Restricts your freedom, Stops having sex with you, Threatens to leave you)” “But first let us look at non-physical means of persuasion in your sexual relations…. Has your husband ever pressured you to have sexual relations?”
“Was your husband ever spanked as a young child?” “Was your husband ever spanked as an older child (6 to 12)?” “Was your husband ever hit or spanked with an object?” “Was your husband ever beaten or abused as a child?”
Gender, Control, and Domestic Violence

8. Situational couple violence
Gender Symmetry/Asymmetry by Type of Violence (Violent husbands and wives only)
Husbands
Wives N
Intimate terrorism
89%
11% 81
Violent resistance
15%
85% 61
Situational couple violence
55%
45%
167

9. Effects of Parent-Child Violence on Adult Partner Violence (Odds ratios from full model)
Men
Women OR
(n)
Intimate terrorism
1.54 39
1.41 15
Situational couple violence
.75 35
1.74* 46
Violent resistance
1.29 11
1.39 64
Non-violent -- 56
116
*p < .05; **p < .01

10. Effects of Parental Partner Violence on Adult Partner Violence (Odds ratios from full model)
Men
Women OR
(n)
Intimate terrorism
7.51** 39
1.33 15
Situational couple violence
2.40 35
1.95 46
Violent resistance
2.84 11
2.78** 64
Non-violent -- 56
116
*p < .05; **p < .01

11. We make big mistakes if we don’t make big distinctions.
Different types of partner violence have…
Different causes, including gender and childhood experiences of family violence
Other research shows that they also have:
Different developmental trajectories
Different effects
Different types of successful intervention strategies
We make big mistakes if we don’t make big distinctions.

12. Support Your Local Shelter
Safety
Support
Information
Advocacy
Safety (shelter, safety plan): undermines his restriction of alternatives through violence
Support (counselor, support groups, shelter ): undermines restriction of alternatives though psychological abuse, undermines social pressure by adding new voices, exposing the children to other families with similar problems
Information (counselor, support groups): undermines restriction of alternatives through lack of information about services, models of women who’ve done it, termination procedures seem more manageable, undermines his threats to take the children
Advocacy:
OR DO YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON THE WHEEL??
Philadelphia, PA
Gender, Control, and Domestic Violence

13. Intimate Terrorism/Domestic Violence
Adapted from Pence & Paymar, 1993
Gender, Control, and Domestic Violence