The Pathway from Family Violence to Dating Violence in College Students’ Relationships: A Multivariate Model

ABSTRACT

The potential transmission of family violence in adults’ dating relationships was examined in a multiple mediator model among 807 college students in Greece. The Dimensions of Discipline Inventory-Adult Recall form measured students’ retrospective accounts of their parents’ discipline methods used at the age of 10, the Conflict Tactics Scales-Between Parents measured mutual interparental violence (mIV), and the Conflict Tactics Scales-Dating Relationship measured mutual dating violence (mDV). Path analysis indicated that mother’s punitive discipline affected mDV through the mediation of violence approval (VA) and negative relating to others, whereas mIV had a direct effect on mDV and an indirect effect via VA, negative relating to mother, and less closeness to mother. Adverse intrafamilial experiences may increase the risk of adult mDV. Risk and protective factors pertaining to intrapersonal and interpersonal constructs should be the target of prevention and intervention efforts to combat adults’ mDV.

KEYWORDS:

• Conflict Tactics Scales
• domestic violence
• intimate partner violence
• punitive discipline
• transmission of family violence

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the students of the Social Work Department at TEI of Crete for their contribution in the recruitment of the sample and also Murray Straus, Angèle Fauchier, and their team for providing multiple help in all stages of the study.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.