The intergenerational transmission of domestic violence: the role that gender plays in attribution and consequent intimate partner violence

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 vi...