Abstract
The intergenerational transmission of domestic violence has received significant research attention. In this study, a sample of 194 couples in Beijing was tested on the transmission mechanism. Thus, we asked: does marital attribution play a mediated role in the transmission from family-of-origin violence to subsequent intimate partner violence? We used three questionnaires: family-of-origin violence, Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2), and Marital Attitude Survey (MAS). Results showed that: (1) in family-of-origin violence, incidence of parent-to-child violence is much higher than inter-parental violence, in which incidence of father-to-mother violence is much higher than mother-to-father violence. (2) Family-of-origin violence has an impact on intimate partner violence (IPV); however, mothers’ perpetration of violence is more likely to have stronger effects. (3) Husbands’ attributions of malicious intent to spouse, and wives’ attributions of causality to spouse’s behavior can mediate parent-to-self violence and IPV. However, other types of dysfunctional marital attributions are not mediators in the relations between family-of-origin violence and IPV.
Acknowledgments
We thank Yamikani Ndasauka for correcting the English.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.