A new piece to understanding the intimate partner violence puzzle: what role do genetics play?

Considering context: Current relationship satisfaction in a second-generation model of men's physical intimate partner violence

Despite a half-century of scholarship devoted to explicating and disrupting the intergenerational transmission of family violence, it remains a prominent and destructive social force in the United States. Theoretical models have posited a variety of historical and concurrent risk and protective factors implicated in the trajectory from childhood violence exposure to adult perpetration. Using a second-generation model of intimate partner violence (IPV), we integrated social learning and attachment conceptualizations to examine pathways from family-of-origin violence to IPV perpetration among adult men. A sample of mixed-sex couples (N = 233) completed self-report measures related to social learning and attachment-based factors (e.g., violence in past relationships, child exposure, IPV attitudes, adult attachment) and participated in a 10-min conversation about a desired area for change in their relationship. Following, each partner participated in a video-mediated-recall procedure assessing their anger volatility and eliciting attributions of their partners' behavior. We tested mediation pathways (consistent with social learning and attachment theories) between violence in men's families of origin and their adult IPV perpetration as a function of relationship satisfaction. The proposed model fit the data well (CFI = 0.95) but had notable modifications from the hypothesized model. Generally, social-learning pathways were more consistent with the data. Relationship satisfaction interacted with some parameters. Results support theoretical advances in understanding IPV. Although exposure to violence in men's family of origin confers risk for later IPV, and a social learning developmental pathway is consistent with results, some of these effects are altered by relationship context.

Further investigation of genetics and intimate partner violence

We thank Drs. Abbey, Bennett, DeWall, and Way for making truly outstanding points in their thoughtful commentaries. We agree with the feedback and advice from all of these distinguished scientists. Future work on genetics and intimate partner violence (IPV) should, when possible, include a larger number of genetic variants, closely examine gene by environment interactions, and study potential mechanisms explaining the connection between genetics and IPV. As with any research, but particularly with respect to studies on a controversial topic such as genetic correlates of IPV, extreme caution should be taken prior to generalizing results or deriving any practical applications from the data. Clearly, replication and extension of the findings in other populations is essential. Ultimately, we believe that it is worth pursuing this line of work given the possible contributions it may make to understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of IPV in the future. Finding solutions to IPV will require the collaboration of a diverse group of constituents from many disciplines.