The role of child maltreatment and attachment style in adolescent relationship violence

Abstract

Utilizing attachment theory as a basis for conceptualizing close relationships among adolescents, this study investigated two important relationship risk factors (child maltreatment, and adolescent self-perceived insecure attachment style) as predictors of “offender” and “victim” experiences in youth relationships. In addition to considering the influence of these risk factors, we further considered their interaction in predicting conflict in close relationships. Of interest was the extent to which attachment styles may function as a moderator of the relationship between childhood abuse and current abuse in teen close relationships. High school students (N = 321) in grades 9 and 10 completed questionnaires tapping their histories of maltreatment, currently viewed styles of attachment, and conflict in close relationships over the past 6 months. Maltreatment alone emerged as the most consistent predictor, accounting for 13–18% of the variance in male's physically, sexually, and verbally abusive behaviors; in contrast, it was not highly predictive of female's abusive behaviors. Maltreatment was predictive of victimization experiences for both males and females. Attachment style did not substantially add to the prediction of relationship conflict beyond maltreatment; however, avoidant attachment style emerged repeatedly as a significant predictor of female abusiveness and victimization. Attachment self-ratings were found to function as a moderator of child maltreatment in predicting primarily male coercive behavior towards a relationship partner as well as predicting male's experience of coercion from a partner. Thus, the presence of childhood maltreatment and adolescent self-perceived insecure attachment style applies predominantly to male youth. The implication of these gender differences for understanding relationship violence is discussed.

Child Maltreatment, Adolescent Attachment Style, and Dating Violence: Considerations in Youths with Borderline-to-Mild Intellectual Disability

“…Rates and severity of maltreatment were similar across adolescents with (Baron and Kenny, 1986), the small effect sizes found here would be expected given the shared focus on relationships (Wekerle and Wolfe, 1998).…”

“…According to Shaver and Hazan (1993), securely attached individuals are interested in close romantic relationships and are capable of forming long-term relationships; avoidant individuals are uncomfortable with close, longterm relationships; and anxious/ambivalent individuals are keen to engage romantically with others but are focussed on potential rejection and abandonment. In a community sample of adolescents, a history of self-reported maltreatment has been found to interact with avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles to predict males' perpetration of abuse toward their romantic female partner, while the level of secure attachment was found to interact with maltreatment history to reduce the likelihood of female-to-male selfreported perpetration (Wekerle and Wolfe, 1998). Further, maltreatment history interacted with anxious-ambivalent attachment style to predict males' reported victimization at the hands of their female partners (Wekerle and Wolfe, 1998).…”

“…In a community sample of adolescents, a history of self-reported maltreatment has been found to interact with avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles to predict males' perpetration of abuse toward their romantic female partner, while the level of secure attachment was found to interact with maltreatment history to reduce the likelihood of female-to-male selfreported perpetration (Wekerle and Wolfe, 1998). Further, maltreatment history interacted with anxious-ambivalent attachment style to predict males' reported victimization at the hands of their female partners (Wekerle and Wolfe, 1998). More recently, in a sample of 391 adolescents aged 14-18 years, Grych and Kinsfogel (2010) demonstrated that romantic attachment moderates the relationship between family aggression and dating aggression.…”

“…As used previously ), a short form was derived from seven pairs of perpetration-victimization items that had the highest loading on factors generated from an exploratory factor analysis of CADRI items. These The attachment security ratings, based on Shaver's work (1987, 1994), consist of relationship descriptions that parallel the three main types of attachment style (secure, anxious/ambivalent, avoidant), and have been used successfully to measure attachment style in adolescents (Wekerle and Wolfe, 1998). Respondents rate their position on a scale ranging from 1 = not at all like me to 7 = very like me (Shaver and Brennan, 1992).…”

Role of attachment in the intergenerational transmission of abuse: From childhood victimization to adult revictimization and distress

“…Not only can family violence lead to serious or fatal physical injury and impaired psychological functioning, it can also disrupt attachment relationships in childhood and adulthood. Insecure romantic attachment has been associated with both IPV perpetration (Bookwala & Zdaniuk, 1998;Dutton et al, 1994;Mauricio & Gormley, 2001;O'Hearn & Davis, 1997;Roberts & Noller, 1998;Schumacher, Slep, & Heyman, 2001) and IPV victimization (Bookwala, 2002;Henderson et al, 2005;Wekerle & Wolfe, 1998). Doumas and colleagues (2008) summarized the literature on IPV and attachment and noted that preoccupied attachment served as a significant predictor of violence perpetration and victimization in both genders (Bookwala & Zdaniuk, 1998;Henderson, Bartholomew, Trinke, & Kwong, 2005).…”