Considering Emotional Abuse in the Link Between Spouse and Child Abuse: A Review and Exploratory Study

• NCJ Number: 180687
• Journal: Journal of Emotional Abuse Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Dated: 1999 Pages: 53-79
• Author(s): Leslie M. Tutty
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 27 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Health Canada, Health Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Fourth International Family Violence Research Conference in Durham, N.H., in July 1995.

Annotation

After a literature review, this article describes an exploratory study that examined the links between spouse abuse and child abuse across generations, including emotional abuse as a variable.

Abstract

The first section of this article reviews the research literature relevant to the intergenerational transmission of partner and child abuse. This review suggests a significant gap in the examination of the possible effects of emotional abuse on men's physical abuse of their partners and children. The second section describes an exploratory study that examined the links between spouse abuse and child abuse across generations, with attention to emotional abuse as a variable. Participants were 97 assaulted women, over half of whose children had been abused by the current partner. Multiple regression analysis examined the extent to which both the perpetrator's and the victim's having been abused or having witnessed abuse in their childhood families was related to the current levels of physical and non-physical abuse of women. In predicting the levels of physical partner abuse based on whether the man was abused or witnessed violence as a child, only abuse as a child was significant. Neither a man having been abused nor being a child witness of abuse was associated with non-physical abuse toward women. The variables of whether the men were child witnesses of violence or were physically abused as a child as well as current abuse toward their partners (both physical and non-physical) were entered into a regression model to predict levels of current abuse of their own children. Neither childhood variable was significantly related to the current abuse of their children; however, the extent of the psychological abuse of his woman partner and, to a lesser extent, the physical abuse of the partner were better predictors of the severity of the abuse of his children. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed. 6 tables and 62 references