Comment citer
Résumé
Objectives: Individuals exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) in childhood are at increased risk of experiencing IPV in adulthood, but this issue has been under-researched in the African context, where IPV is highly prevalent. The factors involved in the risk of intergenerational continuity of IPV victimization are still poorly understood. Our primary aim was to examine the role of mothers and daughters’ trauma-specific reflective functioning (RF) in this intergenerational continuity, in Cameroonian mother-daughter dyads.
Methods: Sixty-one mother-daughter dyads completed questionnaires individually. Regressions with daughters’ IPV victimization as the dependent variable, and person-level and family-level independent variables (e.g., RF, demographic characteristics, maternal IPV victimization) were run.
Results: Continuity of IPV victimization was found for 88.2% of dyads. Person-level factors associated with increased levels of IPV victimization in daughters, included daughters’ age and RF. Regarding family-level factors, mothers’ IPV victimization experiences were positively associated with daughters’ IPV victimization experiences (ß = 0.612, p < .001); mothers’ RF was not (ß = -0.034, p = .422). The complete model explained 50.5% of the variance of daughters’ IPV victimization.
Conclusion: These results suggest that RF, which may underlie the risk of intergenerational continuity of IPV victimization, should be further considered in practice and research.
Implications: Findings that daughters’ RF and mothers’ IPV victimization experiences are associated with daughters’ IPV victimization can inform both practitioners and policymakers of the importance of these factors in prevention and early intervention efforts to reduce IPV.
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