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The Impact of Child Abuse History, PTSD Symptoms, and Anger Arousal on Dating Violence Perpetration Among College Women

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Abstract

Preliminary research suggests that child abuse is indirectly associated with female-perpetrated intimate partner violence via posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and anger. To date, however, no known studies have investigated these relationships for physical and psychological dating violence within a female college sample. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of child abuse history, PTSD symptoms, and anger arousal on female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence. Female undergraduates (N = 496) completed measures of child abuse, PTSD symptoms, anger arousal, and dating violence perpetration as part of a larger trauma and violence study. Results indicated that child abuse directly predicted female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence and indirectly impacted female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence via PTSD symptoms and anger arousal. The direct relationships between PTSD symptoms and female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence were nonsignificant after controlling for the effect of anger arousal.

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Notes

  1. The path models were run both with and without ethnicity and income, but the inclusion of these demographic variables did not significantly change the overall models. Therefore, these demographic variables were not included in the final models.

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Acknowledgment

The authors want to thank the Center for the Study of Family Violence and Sexual Assault at Northern Illinois University, including former and current directors Drs. Joel Milner and Julie Crouch, and Dr. Holly Orcutt for their assistance on this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    Rachel Kendra

  2. Department of Psychology, Capital University, Columbus, OH, 43209, USA

    Kathryn M. Bell

  3. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Jennifer M. Guimond

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  1. Rachel Kendra
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Correspondence to Kathryn M. Bell.

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Kendra, R., Bell, K.M. & Guimond, J.M. The Impact of Child Abuse History, PTSD Symptoms, and Anger Arousal on Dating Violence Perpetration Among College Women. J Fam Viol 27, 165–175 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-012-9415-7

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