The purpose of this study with low-income adult women is to assess the extent to which different forms of family violence occur during childhood and during adulthood within the same sample, for example, intimate partner violence, child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, and child neglect. Findings show weak to moderate associations between various forms of violence within generations; weak support for the hypothesis that maltreated children are more likely to grow up to maltreat their own children; and stronger support for the theory of learned helplessness, in which children maltreated or who witness violence during childhood are more likely to be victimised as an adult. The study concludes that prevention and intervention programmes should focus on more than one form of violence, and assessing whether the parent or caregiver has experienced some forms of family violence during childhood.

Child Abuse and Neglect 30(6) June 2006 : 599-617