Violence between parents is enough to start a chain reaction of anti-social behavior in the following generations, new research finds. Exposure to violence between parents affects children’s ability to regulate their emotional responses to conflict – laying the groundwork for a new cycle of violent relationships.

To extend our view of generational influence and explain how forms of antisocial behavior run in families, researchers from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York examined data gathered for the Children in the Community Study, which documents, over a 25-year period, the prevalence and consequences of emotional and behavioral problems across three generations.

The study explored whether exposure to parents’ violence in one generation could explain the risks for children’s behavioral problems, adolescent conduct disorder, and adult intimate partner violence in the next two generations.

Findings from the study indicate that family violence does influence the transmission of antisocial behaviors across generations. In particular, in the second generation, children who suffered exposure to intimate partner violence between their first-generation parents showed significant risks for conduct disorder in adolescence as well as adult anti-social behaviors.

In addition, the experiences of the second generation, both as children exposed to violence between their parents and as adults using violence in their own intimate relationships, predicted behavior problems in their children – the third generation.

The study also found that both mothers’ and fathers’ involvement in intimate partner violence were important in the pathways to children’s antisocial behavior.

How do children inherit the risk of violence?
The researchers tested three possible pathways by which the intergenerational transmission might occur.

First, violence between partners could lead to increased levels of mental health problems in parents, such as depression and anxiety. Parents’ mental health problems could, in turn, increase children’s own vulnerability. In fact, the study found this not to be the case: while partner violence did predict mental health problems, these did not significantly mediate subsequent generations’ behavior.

A second possible pathway is that intimate partner violence may increase the risk for harsh parenting practices, a known correlate for anti-social behavior in children. Again, while parenting practices were negatively affected by intimate partner violence, the data did not support a causal chain linking disrupted parent-child relationships with children’s later behavioral problems.

There was support for the third pathway, however. This suggests that children’s individual differences in self-regulation – that is their ability to regulate their mood, control their expression of emotion, including hostility and aggression – may be affected by violence between their parents. Children’s exposure to violence may alter their neurobiological processing mechanisms, which in turn affect children’s ability throughout their life to regulate their responses to conflict.

The study found that intimate partner violence between parents increased the risk for children’s difficulties with “impulsive emotionality and aggressive personality styles in adolescence.” These traits are in place long before adult intimate relationships begin, increasing the likelihood that the cycle may repeat itself when conflict arises in adult relationships.

Among their recommendations, the researchers advocate that prevention efforts should work on improving positive parent perceptions of their children and efficacy in their role as parent. Parents who have experienced intimate partner violence are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their own children and in so doing communicate the rejection they have felt in their interactions with them.

Reference
Ehrensaft, M.K., & Cohen, P. (2011). Contribution of family violence to the intergenerational transmission of externalizing behavior. Prevention Science, DOI 10.1007/s11121-011-0223-8.

Links:
Children in the Community Study: http://nyspi.org/childcom/