Citation

Wright EM, Fagan AA. Crim. Justice Behav. 2012; 39(1): 26-41.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854811425649

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Youth who are exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) between their parents may be at increased risk for a multitude of behavioral and emotional problems, including mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and internalizing symptoms (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998; Finkelhor, Ormond, & Turner, 2009; Graham-Bermann, DeVoe, Mattis, Lynch, & Thomas, 2006; Zinzow et al., 2009). Research also suggests that males and females may react differently to being exposed to parental violence, although most of the findings in this area are mixed with regard to mental health outcomes. For instance, some evidence suggests that male witnesses are more likely to develop externalizing behaviors and females are more likely to suffer from internalizing disorders (Clements, Oxtoby, & Ogle, 2008; Kennedy, Bybee, Sullivan, & Greeson, 2010; Moylan et al., 2010; Yates, Dodds, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2003), whereas other studies have found that girls exposed to IPV are more likely than boys to demonstrate externalizing problems such as anger (Sigfusdottir, Farkas, & Silver, 2004). Yet others have found no gender differences in these outcomes (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998; Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003; Sternberg, Baradaran, Abbott, Lamb, & Guterman, 2006).

Like most other areas of research, though, the literature regarding exposure to IPV has methodological problems that somewhat weaken the validity of findings and may contribute to the mixed evidence regarding whether exposure to partner violence affects male and female youths differently. One avenue that has very rarely been examined but that may lead to a better understanding of the impact of IPV exposure among youth is whether the gender of the perpetrator (e.g., mother-perpetrated vs. father-perpetrated IPV) elicits differential effects on adolescents' mental health outcomes (e.g., Jankowski, Leitenberg, Henning, & Coffey, 1999).

The current study attempts to …

Keywords: Juvenile justice

Language: en