Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Exposure to Parental Partner Violence and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence in Adulthood

This study examined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology as a potential pathway explaining the association between childhood exposure to parental intimate partner violence (IPV) and different forms of IPV perpetration in a community sample of adults (<i>N</i> = 454). We hypothesized that PTSD symptom total scores would mediate the relationship between childhood exposure to parental IPV and different forms of IPV perpetration (physical violence, psychological violence, and coercive control). In addition, we examined the four PTSD symptom clusters (intrusions, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in arousal/reactivity) and hypothesized that the arousal/reactivity symptom cluster would mediate the association between childhood exposure to parental IPV and each form of IPV perpetration assessed. As expected, PTSD symptom total scores partially mediated the relationship between childhood exposure to parental IPV and perpetration of physical IPV (β = .38, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [0.29, 0.47]), psychological IPV (β = .20, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [0.15, 0.25]), and coercive control (β = .67, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [0.59, 0.75]). Analyses examining the PTSD symptom clusters revealed that, as hypothesized, the arousal/reactivity symptom cluster partially mediated the relationship between childhood exposure to parental IPV and physical IPV perpetration (β = 1.04, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [0.51, 1.57]), psychological IPV perpetration (β = .55, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [0.25, 0.86]), and coercive control (β = 1.83, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [1.36, 2.30]). Although not hypothesized, intrusion symptoms (β = 1.10, <i>p</i> < .001, 95% CI [0.50, 1.70]) also partially mediated the association between childhood exposure to parental IPV and coercive control. Findings support the importance of both childhood IPV exposure and arousal/reactivity symptoms as risk factors for IPV perpetration, highlighting the potential relevance of the developmental psychopathology model in the study of the intergenerational transmission of IPV perpetration.