Outcomes of Family Violence
As it was the case for research into the consequences of family conflict, most research investigating the outcomes of family violence has investigated either the outcomes of spousal abuse for the battered spouse (e.g., Johnson & Ferraro, 2000) or the outcomes for children (e.g., Gershoff, 2002).
Generally, children of violent families are more likely to enact violence in their peer relationships and their subsequent relationships as adolescents and adults (Carr & VanDeusen, 2002; Salzinger et al., 2002; Simons, Lin, & Gordon, 1998; Straus & Yodanis, 1996; Swinford, DeMaris, Cernkovich, & Giordano, 2000; Whitfield, Anda, Dube, & Felitti, 2003;Yexley, Borowsky, & Ireland, 2002). For example, Salzinger et al. (2002) studied the effects of partner violence and physical abuse on children’s social behaviors and found that abused children exhibited significantly higher levels of meanness and fighting and were six times more likely to be rated by peers and teachers as antisocial. Similarly, Carr and VanDeusen (2002) examined interparental violence and parent-child aggression as risk factors for intimate partner violence in a sample of college men. They found that witnessing interparental violence and experiencing childhood violence predicted physical violence in subsequent dating relationships.
As is the case for family conflict in general, there are several theoretical explanations linking family violence to the negative psychological and social outcomes for children. Most researchers investigating the effects of corporal punishment and other forms of family violence employ a model of intergenerational transmission of violence that proposes that children who experience violence in their families come to see violence as a normal and expected aspect of interpersonal relationships. In this model, family violence leads children to accept violence as normal in interpersonal relationships and to be more violent in their own interpersonal relationships (Gil-Gonzalez, Vives-Cases, Ruiz, Carrasco- Portino, & Alvarez-Dardet, 2008; Simons et al., 1998; Straus & Yodanis, 1996; Swinford et al., 2000). Experiencing violence in families, however, leads children not only to enact more violence in their own relationships but also to be more tolerant of violence enacted by their partner. That is, exposing children to physical violence within the family increases their risk for later victimization and perpetration of interpersonal violence. Whitfield et al. (2003) in a study of violent childhood experiences found that the risk of perpetrating interpersonal violence (for men) or being victimized by interpersonal violence (for women) increased as the number of violent childhood experiences increased.