A Longitudinal Investigation on the Role of Coercive Maternal Parenting on Intimate Partner Violence and the Protective Potential of Prosocial Peer Socialization

Millions of men and women experience intimate partner violence (IPV), including physical, sexual, and psychological abuse behaviors within romantic relationships each year. IPV negatively impacts individuals’ lifelong physical and mental health. Decades of research on IPV have shown that negative family-of-origin experiences in early childhood and adolescence, particularly coercive and harsh parenting, are significant predictors of future IPV involvement. Deviant peer relationships also predict future IPV, due to peer socialization of coercive romantic relationship norms. However, much less is known about protective factors for IPV. One potential key protective factor is peer prosocial socialization, which protects against violent behavior, but has not been investigated in the context of coercive parenting on IPV. Thus, the proposed study investigates how coercive maternal parenting during adolescence predicts adulthood IPV involvement, and whether adolescent peer prosocial socialization serves as a protective factor. The sample consists of 371 individuals (Mage at T1 = 16.98 years, SD = 0.76; Mage at T2 = 28.99 years, SD = 0.81; 48.2% White, 29.9% Black, 9.7%) Hispanic/Latino, 10.5% other). A latent moderated structural equation model revealed that coercive maternal parenting did not significantly predict IPV in adulthood, and there was not a significant interaction between coercive maternal parenting and prosocial peers. Prosocial peers were a direct predictor of IPV, indicating that peer socialization of prosocial behaviors and norms in adolescence was associated with lower IPV in adulthood. Findings emphasize the importance of peer relationships in socialization of prosocial norms in adolescence in reducing adulthood IPV involvement.