CHILDHOOD PARENTING EXPERIENCES, INTIMATE PARTNER CONFLICT-RESOLUTION, AND ADULT RISK FOR CHILD PHYSICAL ABUSE

This study investigated the relationships between conflict resolution tactics experienced during childhood, intimate partner conflict resolu tion tactics, alcohol problems, and adult child physical abuse risk. P articipants were 1,544 Navy recruit trainees who volunteered to comple te measures of parenting practices and spousal physical violence exper ienced during their childhood, the conflict resolution techniques used in their intimate relationships, their personal history of alcohol pr oblems, and child physical abuse potential. Regression analyses indica ted that the receipt of intimate partner physical violence accounted f or the most variance in predicting who would inflict physical violence against an intimate partner; and the infliction of intimate partner p hysical violence accounted for the most variance in predicting who wou ld receive physical violence from an intimate partner. Other analyses indicated that among the parent and intimate partner physically violen t events, parent-child violence experienced during childhood accounted for the most variance in explaining child abuse risk in females and m ales, with the infliction of intimate partner violence adding only to the prediction of child abuse risk in females. Analyses also revealed that after the effects of violent experiences were removed, alcohol pr oblems contributed significantly, albeit very modestly, to the predict ion of who expressed intimate partner physical violence for males and females, who was physically injured by an intimate partner (in the cas e of male injury), and who was at risk of child physical abuse for mal es and females.