Relationship Churning and Desistance From Intimate Abuse

Abstract

It is essential to understand how desistance from intimate abuse occurs so it can be facilitated for those experiencing it. Recognizing the category of churning relationships—in which partners separate and reunite—gives us analytic leverage in identifying the relationship dynamics that predict abuse desistance. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal survey of parents in urban areas, we compare desistance among churners (who experience a breakup only) with those who repartner (who experience a breakup and a new partnership) and those who are stably together (who experience neither a breakup nor a new partnership). We examine whether abuse desistance patterns are distinct for those who breakup and reconcile versus those who breakup and form new partnerships—that is, we can separate out the association between abuse desistance and the breakup versus the new partnership. We find that, among those with a history of intimate abuse, churners and those who later repartner are overrepresented. However, among those who do experience abuse, the repartnered are most likely to experience desistance from intimate abuse, controlling for individual sociodemographic characteristics. In breaking up and entering a new relationship, the repartnered may be most successful in developing a healthier relationship dynamic than the churners who reunite with one another.

Parental Relationship Status as a Moderator of the Associations Between Mothers’ and Fathers’ Conflict Behaviors and Early Child Behavior Problems

“…Broadly consistent with the research of Halpern-Meekin and colleagues, churning mothers and fathers in this study were more depressed and had higher levels of IPV than did married and cohabiting families (Halpern-Meekin et al, 2013; Halpern-Meekin & Turney, 2018). We find that compared with married and cohabiting parents, churning couples reported significantly higher levels of more moderate forms of destructive conflict and significantly lower levels of constructive conflict behaviors, which include behaviors such as listening and maintaining humor during disagreements.…”

“…We further examined whether these processes differ for mothers and fathers. The third research question was to examine whether parental relationship status (i.e., married, cohabiting, and churning) moderated these associations based on prior research showing differing levels of IPV among these family configurations (Halpern-Meekin et al, 2013; Halpern-Meekin & Turney, 2018). We controlled for a comprehensive set of factors that are linked to interparental conflict and child behavior problems, such as parental depression.…”

“…The dynamics of relationship churning are unique in comparison to being in a stable partnership (e.g., married or cohabiting for multiple waves of data collection) or being stably broken up. When compared with parents who were stably married or cohabiting, relationship churning was associated with higher levels of parenting stress (Halpern-Meekin & Turney, 2016) and higher rates of maternal-reported intimate partner violence (IPV) (Halpern-Meekin & Turney, 2018).…”

A Socioecological Perspective on Intimate Partner Violence Research: A Decade in Review

“…Their findings showed that, after leaving the shelter, contact with the mother's violent partner was positively associated with a number of negative family outcomes including child conduct problems, further IPV incidents, and more parent–child aggression (Jouriles et al, ). Using data from the longitudinal Fragile Families and Child Well‐Being Study, Halpern‐Meekin and Turney () showed that IPV (primarily nonphysical abuse) is associated with relationship churning over time and suggested that those who begin relationships with new partners instead of reuniting with past partners may have more positive relationship outcomes. Taken together, the past decade has continued to shed light on the long‐term implications of IPV perpetration and victimization in individual and dyadic contexts.…”

Family Instability and Adolescent Relationships: The Role of Parental Relationship Churning

“…There was one outcome—abuse perpetration—for which adolescent and parent characteristics did not explain away the differences between youth with churning versus stably together parents. Previous research has documented, among churners, higher rates of intimate abuse (Halpern-Meekin et al, 2013b) and lower rates of desistance from intimate abuse (Halpern-Meekin & Turney, 2018). Lichter and McCloskey (2004) have found that adolescents who were exposed to intimate abuse in their parents’ relationship were more accepting of abuse in relationships, and those who were more accepting of abuse were more likely to experience it.…”