Intrafamilial Physical Abuse: Examining the Role of Perpetrator Identity

Abstract Child physical abuse is one of the most common forms of childhood maltreatment with long-lasting outcomes into adulthood. It often presents with other forms of maltreatment creating difficulty to distinguish unique outcomes of specific maltreatment types. Severe child physical abuse is also most often perpetrated by someone known within the household, yet the role of intrafamilial perpetrator identity and implicated outcomes are not well-studied. The study assesses severe child physical abuse and its outcomes in adulthood independently from other maltreatment types. Additionally, the study delineates intrafamilial perpetrator identity and associated outcomes in adulthood. The source sample comprised 863 participants from the MIDUS Refresher Biomarker Study, with analytic sample sizes varying according to data availability. Exposure to severe physical-abuse acts was operationalized using dichotomous overall and perpetrator-specific indicators. General linear models examined associations with anger expression, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, CRP, and cortisol while adjusting for demographic covariates. CRP and cortisol were log-transformed, and false discovery rate correction was applied for multiple testing. Overall exposure to intrafamilial severe physical-abuse acts was associated with greater anger expression-out after correction for multiple testing. In perpetrator-specific models simultaneously accounting for father-, mother-, brother-, and sister-perpetrated exposure, father-perpetrated exposure was independently associated with greater anger expression-out and remained significant after additional adjustment for other forms of childhood maltreatment. No other psychological or biological outcome showed a robust association after false discovery rate correction. Findings indicate an association between intrafamilial physical-abuse exposure and adult anger expression-out and suggest that perpetrator identity may be relevant to this association. The more limited perpetrator-specific findings after correction for multiple testing underscore the importance of cautious and adequately powered investigation of perpetrator identity.