Carla Smith Stover

Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts individuals, families, and wider society. Sensitivity to rejection is reliably associated with IPV use. Yet with IPV-users often demonstrating reduced emotional clarity, such sensitivity may not always be accessible to verbal reporting. Electroencephalography may circumvent this issue by capturing sensitivity to rejection at the neural level. Using event-related potentials, the neural processing of social exclusion has been explicated and is often linked to reductions in frontal slow wave (FSW) amplitude. This study examined FSW amplitude as elicited by the social exclusion game, Cyberball, to investigate the neural mechanisms of social exclusion processing in 43 fathers with and without histories of IPV use. We further investigate group differences in self-reported ostracism distress and emotional clarity across IPV-using and control fathers. IPV-using fathers displayed significantly lower exclusion evoked FSW amplitude, possibly reflecting stress-induced disruptions to mentalizing. Additionally, IPV-using fathers reported no significant differences in ostracism distress but increased difficulties in emotional clarity. Overall, findings suggest that IPV-using fathers display a profile of heightened neural sensitivity to social exclusion and a reduced ability to access their emotional states. These findings shed light on potential mechanisms of IPV to inform future research and interventions.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health challenge with disproportionately high rates among United States (U.S.) Service Members and Veterans. IPV is often conceptualized as a unidirectional phenomenon despite evidence that most IPV is bidirectional, where both members of a couple use and experience IPV. This scoping review examined the current state of the literature on bidirectional IPV among Service Members and Veterans. MEDLINE, Embase, APA PsycInfo, APA PsyArticles, APA PsycExtra, CINAHL, CENTRAL, CDSR, Academic Search Premier, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, PTSDpubs, ProQuest Dissertations & Abstracts, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched. Articles were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: (a) contains data on U.S. Service Members or Veterans over the age of 18; (b) measured IPV use (i.e., perpetration) and experience (i.e., victimization) during an overlapping period, and (c) reported bidirectional IPV at least once in either text, figures, or tables. Overall rates of bidirectional IPV across studies ( n = 21) ranged from 25% to 66.9%; rates disaggregated by subtype ranged from 1.5% (bidirectional sexual IPV) to 94% (bidirectional psychological IPV). There was considerable cross-study variation in measurement and operationalization. No studies contained data from both Service Members and Veterans in the same study. Higher rates of overall bidirectional IPV were documented among Veterans (range: 28.4%–66.9%) relative to Service Members (25%). These results highlight the need to collect data on the bidirectional IPV from Service Members and Veterans in the same study and consistent approaches to measuring and operationalizing bidirectional IPV.

Interventions for men who use intimate partner violence (IPV) almost exclusively have been provided and tested in group formats. Development and testing of individual interventions for IPV use has been stymied by the belief that the best approach is a group format with others who also have used IPV behaviors. Yet, few studies have tested this assumption in randomized controlled trials. The current study is a pilot evaluation of an individual intervention for fathers who use IPV, Fathers for Change (F4C), compared to the standard of care for IPV, Duluth Model Batterer Intervention Program delivered in its original group format (Duluth-G) or an individual format (Duluth-I) developed for this study. Eighty-two fathers who used IPV behaviors in the last 12 months and were referred for treatment were randomly assigned to F4C, Duluth-I, or Duluth-G and provided 18 weeks of once per week treatment. Pre and postassessments were collected on emotion regulation (ER), along with weekly reports of IPV and harsh child discipline (CD), and monthly working alliance with their therapists. Fathers in the individual treatments (F4C and Duluth-I) attended more sessions and reported greater working alliance with their therapists, and reported reduced use of IPV than fathers in group treatment (Duluth-G). Only fathers in F4C reported significant improvements in their ER from pre to posttreatment. These results support further development and testing of individual therapies that target IPV behaviors of fathers.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant issue in young adult relationships, with immediate and long-term health and well-being consequences. The factors contributing to IPV are complex and span from the level of individual neurobiology to the wider socioecological system. The interplay across these domains in predicting IPV has been understudied. We, therefore, aimed to examine the factors contributing to IPV risk among young adults, adopting a holistic approach considering direct and indirect contributions of socioecological influences in a cohort of high-risk subjects. Data were from a longitudinal birth cohort established in 1991 comparing the developmental trajectories of individuals prenatally exposed to substances including cocaine and nonexposed individuals. Using data from a subsample of 206 participants followed between 2010 and 2020, we implemented path analysis to examine direct and indirect pathways between prenatal drug exposure (PDE) and young adult IPV. We considered the contributions of childhood maltreatment, maternal education, ethnicity, early adolescent substance use, and late adolescent executive function. Sex-specific effects were also explored. There were no significant direct or indirect associations between PDE and IPV. There was evidence of an indirect effect of low maternal education on IPV via effects on early adolescent substance use and subsequent effects on executive function in late adolescence. There was tentative evidence of an effect of ethnicity on IPV risk and of sex differences in the pathways contributing to IPV risk among males and females. We highlight the importance of executive function in young adult IPV risk and suggest considering maternal education and early adolescent substance use as additional contributors to IPV risk. Preventing IPV among young adults may involve enhancing executive functioning and preventing early substance misuse. When examining pathways contributing to IPV risk, it is necessary to adopt a framework integrating the wider socioecological environment.

There is ample evidence for associations among childhood family violence and adult intimate partner violence (IPV) use. This study was designed to examine potential differential associations between childhood physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse, witnessing parental IPV, posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) severity, and IPV use for men and women veterans. Survey data from 825 veterans who participated in a longitudinal multisite investigation of post-9/11 veterans who completed measures of childhood family violence history, PTSS, IPV use and experiences were used. Moderation analysis in hierarchical linear regression tested whether men veterans with childhood family violence had higher rates of IPV use than women veterans. A gender-stratified causal mediation was conducted to test whether PTSS severity mediated the relationships among childhood family violence types and IPV use for men and women. Women veterans reported significantly higher rates of all forms of childhood family violence than men, but there were no significant gender differences in rates of reported IPV use. PTSS severity did not mediate the association between childhood family violence types and adult IPV use for men or women. For men PTSS severity was the only factor significantly positively associated with IPV use. Childhood sexual abuse was the only factor significantly positively associated with IPV use for women. These differential findings for men and women veterans support screening and intervention based on gender for veterans accessing VA healthcare and the need for interventions that address childhood trauma, PTSS and IPV within the VA healthcare system.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is often considered a unidirectional phenomenon even though historical debate has highlighted the prevalence of bidirectional IPV, where both partners in a couple use and experience IPV. Dyadic data, in which both partners report on IPV, is important because agreement in partner reports of IPV is low. This scoping review aimed to identify rates of bidirectional IPV and examined how different methods of reporting bidirectional IPV impacted rates in studies using dyadic data. Systematic database searches were conducted, and studies were reviewed for the following inclusion criteria: (a) adults over the age of 18; (b) reported rates of bidirectional IPV or provided data that would allow for calculation of bidirectional IPV in the sample; (c) used dyadic data; (d) was published in a peer-reviewed journal; and (e) a United States sample. Rates of bidirectional IPV varied significantly across the 34 studies with rates ranging from 10.0% to 96.6% (median = 35.0%). There was significant variability across studies in instrumentation, definition of bidirectional IPV, and type of sample, making cross-study comparison difficult. Most studies reported the presence of bidirectional IPV if either partner reported IPV use (i.e., perpetration) or experience (i.e., victimization), and if partners disagreed, the higher or positive score was used. Bidirectional IPV rates derived from this method ranged from 10% to 80% which may be an overrepresentation of bidirectional IPV. Further research is needed to inform the ideal method for defining bidirectional IPV, especially when partners do not agree in their reports of IPV.

Concordance between partner reports of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is generally low, but self-reporting of IPV and concordance between partners among expectant parents in marginalized communities has not been explored, nor have associations among each partner’s reports of IPV and their behaviors in observed conflict discussions. This study will examine these gaps. One hundred and thirty-eight low-income, unmarried, Black, coparenting dyads expecting their first child together (136 mothers and 136 fathers) completed the Revised-Conflict Tactics Scale and a video recorded and coded conflict discussion. There was low concordance between parent’s reports of IPV overall with moderate levels of concordance for coparents who were living together and had more harmonious relationships. Linear regression analyses indicated only mothers’ reports of fathers’ psychological and physical IPV but not fathers’ reports of IPV were significantly associated with observed negative communication. Neither coparents’ reports of psychological or physical IPV were associated with positive communication during a conflict discussion. These findings suggest that at the time of parenthood transitions, mothers’ reports of fathers’ IPV behaviors may be more robust in their association with negative/unhealthy couple communication patterns than fathers’ reports and should be used when making safety determinations with families.