Antisocial Personality Traits Link Family of Origin Violence and Emotional Partner Abuse in College Students

Intimate partner violence (IPV), which can include physical and psychological harm toward an intimate partner, is a significant problem on college campuses with 20%–50% of college students reporting victimization during their college careers. The intergenerational transmission of violence theory suggests that Family of Origin Violence (FOV; e.g., witnessing IPV between parental figures and experiencing childhood physical abuse) increases the likelihood of perpetrating IPV as an adult. FOV is also associated with an increased risk of developing antisocial personality traits, a correlate of IPV perpetration. We examined whether antisocial personality traits explained the relationship between FOV (i.e., experiencing and witnessing) and four different types of emotional partner abuse (i.e., restrictive engulfment, denigration, hostile withdrawal, and dominance/intimidation) while controlling for sex, alcohol, and drug use/problems. Experiencing FOV positively associated with restrictive engulfment emotional partner abuse (B = .04, 95% CI [.01, .08]), hostile withdrawal emotional partner abuse (B = .07, 95% CI [.03, .13]), and dominance/intimidation emotional partner abuse (B = .04, 95% CI [.01, .09]) through antisocial personality traits. These findings have implications for the long-term consequences of FOV.