The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S.

Department of Justice and prepared the following final report:

Document Title: Male-Perpetrated Domestic Violence: Testing a

Series of Multifactorial Models, Summary

Author(s): Lynda A. King, Daniel W. King

Document No.: 185695

Date Received: December 6, 2000

Award Number: 98-WT-VX-0031

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the official position or policies of the U.S.

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2500-WORD SUMMARY 

SEPTEMBER 30,2000 

MALE-PERPETRATED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: TESTING A 

SERIES OF MULTIFACTORIAL FAMILY MODELS 

RESEARCH SUPPORTED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE 

GRANT NUMBER 98-WT-VX-OC31 

Investigators and Affiliations 

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS . 

I 

Lynda A. King' & Daniel W. King2 

CO-INVESTIGATORS, RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, AND RESEARCH ASSISTANTS 

David W. Foy3, Heidi S. Resnick', David S. Riggs', Amy E. Street6, Holly K. Orcutt', Vincent W. 

Savarese*, Michael K. Suvakg, Jeffrey I. Gold", & Marie B. Caulfield" 

CONSULTANTS 

K. Daniel O'Leary12, & Robert S. Pyn00s'~ 

'* l1 Women's Health Sciences Division, National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, & 

Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 

2* 'Behavioral Science Division, National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, & Boston 

University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 

e 

3Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University, Encino, CA 

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, National Crime Victims Research and Treatment 

Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 

4 

6* ', 'Women's Health Sciences Division and Behavioral Science Division, National Center for PTSD, 

VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 

"Palo Alto VA Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA 

'2Psychology Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 

13Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLAMeuropsychiatric Institute, University of 

California at Los Angeles Medical School, Los Angeles, CA D 

- ---- -- . - . . . . .. _- I*i-" .. ... . . ." ,. I,- .- 

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There is no shortage of statistics to document that violence is a serious problem in our society, 

and much of this violence occurs in the home environment. Also, the likelihood of experiencing a 

traumatic event in general and the prevalence of post-event psychological disturbance are not trivial. 

One condition that may result is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder observed in 

persons who have been exposed to an extreme stressor that evokes feelings of “intense fear, 

helplessness, or horror” (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders JDSM-IV1; American 

Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 428). Symptoms include reexperiencing the event through frightening 

dreams and intrusive recollections, avoidance of circumstances that might trigger a reexperiencing 

episode, emotional numbing and retreat from intimate relationships, and increased arousal. PTSD 

frequently co-exists or is comorbid with alcohol abuse. 

In the project reported here, we sought to demonstrate that these two important social and 

health problems--domestic violence and trauma-related psychological distress--are indeed connected, 

G4th trauma and its sequelae (PTSD and alcohol abuse) serving as major mediators to explain the 

etiology and propagation of aggressive behaviors in families. The goal of the project was to gain a 

better understanding of risk factors associated with male-perpetrated domestic violence, partner’s 

mental distress, and child behavior problems using data from the National Vietnam Veterans 

Readjustment Study (Kulka et al., 1990a, 1990b). This rich database contains extensive information on 

a national sample of community-residing male veteran-female partner dyads and af5orded the 

opportunity to examine multivariate models of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of 

violence against women. 

‘, 

Figure 1 presents the conceptual framework for the project. Emphasis was placed on four 

categories of explanatory variables: (a) the perpetrator’s accounts of family of origin characteristics 

and experiences; (b) the perpetrator’s conduct and behavior problems prior to age 15 (childhood 

antisocial behavior); (c) the perpetrator’s exposure to war-zone stressors; and (d) mental distress of the 

perpetrator, with attention to PTSD symptomatology and alcohol abuse. The project incorporated four 

clusters of family of procreation criterion variables: (e) marital and family hctioning; (f) perpetratorto-partner violence; (g) partner mental distress; and (h) child behavior problems. 

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework for the Research Project 

EXPLANATORY 

---

CRITERION 

1- VARIABLES 

VARIABLES 1 

Perpetrator’s 

Exposure to 

War-zone Stressors 

Traditional Combat 

Perceived Threat 

Perpetrator’s Family of 

Origin Characteristics 

& Experiences 

Relationship with Mother 

Relationship with Father 

Family Dysfunction 

Family Turmoil 

Severe Punishment 

Interparental Violence 

Inventory of 

Traumatic Events 

Perpetrator’s 

Childhood 

An tisocial 

Bhavior 

I I 

I 

Perpetrator’s Current 

Mental Distress 

PTSD 

Alcohol Abuse 

0 Drinking Frequency 

Drinking Quantity 

DIS Abuse Scale 

DIS Dependence Scale 

MaritaVFamily 

Functioning 

Marital Adjustment 

Family Adaptability 

Family Cohesion 

Perpetrator-to-Partner 

-. Violence 

CTS Physical Violence 

Partner’s Mental Distress 

Demoralization 

General Well-being 

Social Isolation 

Child Behavior 

Problems 

CBCL Internalizing 

CBCL Externalizing 

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The research project was organized into a sequence of four studies, each of which addressed a 

specific objective and subsumed hypotheses concerning the patterns of relationships among critical 

variables: 

Studv 1 (Variables Characterizing Perpetrator’s Familv of Procreation) sought to determine the 

pattern of relationships among variables representing marital and family functioning, perpetrator-topartner violence, partner’s mental distress, and child behavior problems. This initial study laid a 

foundation for the full project by documenting associations among the criterion variables that provide a 

contemporary portrayal of the perpetrator’s family of procreation. For this segment, a working 

hypothesis was that the perpetrator’s perspective on the quality of marital and family functioning and 

his violent behaviors toward the partner have direct effects on partner’s mental distress and child 

behavior problems and indirect effects on these outcomes via the partner’s perspective on the quality 

of marital and family functioning. 

Studv 2 (Pernetrator’s Early Background and Trauma Historv) aimed to establish the degree to 

which the perpetrator’s family of origin characteristics and experiences (especially severe punishment 

and other forms of childhood trauma), childhood antisbcial behavior, along with exposure to stressors 

in the Vietnam war zone and subsequent PTSD symptomatology, relate to perpetrator-to-partner 

family violence. First, we predicted main effects for the background and trauma variables, emanating 

from the family of origin, childhood antisocial behavior, and war-zone stressor categories to the 

violence variable. Also, we predicted that PTSD would serve as at least a partial mediator of these 

relationships. 

distress of the perpetrator is associated with marital and family functioning, violence, and current 

mental distress of the partner. This phase of the research program highlighted the role of stress disorder 

symptomatology and alcohol abuse in accounting for family violence. Hypotheses included: (a) a 

relationship between the perpetrator’s mental distress (PTSD and alcohol abuse) and the mental distress 

of the partner; (b) a direct effect between the emotional numbing aspect of PTSD and marital and 

family functioning; (c) a direct effect between PTSD’s hyperarousal symptom cluster and violence; 

and (d) a disinhibition hypothesis regarding perpetrator’s alcohol abuse, such that its presence Mer 

provokes domestic turmoil and aggression in the form of an interaction between hyperarousal and 

alcohol abuse on perpetrator-to-partner violence. 

Studv 4 (DeveloDmental and Interaenerational Perspective on Violence) aimed to model a 

network of relationships explaining the potential transmission of violence across generations, 

commencing with the perpetrator’s accounts of violence within the family of origin and terminating 

with reports of child behavior problems (specifically externalizing behaviors) within the family of 

procreation. All eight categories of variables were incorporated, with variables that emerged as salient 

in the preceding studies given priority consideration. An evaluation of a full model, with designated 

mediational influences capturing important stages and events in the life of the perpetrator, and with 

child behavior problems as the outcome, was intended to emphasize the relative influence of leading 

risk factors and suggest mechanisms by which they operate. 

Models to explain relationships among variables within the project relied on the family as the 

unit of analysis, with data supplied by 376 male veteran-female partner couples (261 with children in 

the home) who participated in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. Several features of 

the available data set made it especially appropriate to the goal of this project: (a) Data came fiom an 

influential study that scrupulously attended to the diversity of the sample, the quality of measures and 

questionnaires, and the collection and management of information. (b) Response rates for the family 0 participants were high, with no appreciable differences between those who participated and those who 

did not. (c) The characteristics on which the families were targeted for selection yielded a sample wellsuited to studying those at high risk for domestic violence, including the requisite dispersion or 

variability in scores to insure detection of important relationships in models. 

Studv 3 (Pernetrator’s Current Mental Distress) proposed to examine how the current mental 

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The array of variables (see Figure 1) was operationalized, and structural equation modeling 

methodologies were employed. Figures 2-6 present the results as represented by models of best fit for 

each of the studies. 

-9.63/CR= -c / FunctioningFigure 2. Relationships among Variables in Study 1 

-3.07 

( PeyE;-to- .30/CR=1.63 

Violence 

S-B 2 (46, N = 260) = 82.69, E < .001; RMSEA = .055 (90% CI = .036-.074); CFI = .90; GFI = .89. 

Structural coefficients are unstandardized. CR = critical ratio, or parameter estimate divided by its standard error. 

S-Bx' (198, N = 367) = 335.30, E < .001; RMSEA = .049 (90% CI = .041-.056); CFI = -95; GFI = .92. 

Structural coefficients are unstandardized. CR = critical ratio, or parameter estimate divided by its standard error. 

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Figure 4. Relationships among Variables in Study 3 

a 

2.90 

Violence 

S-Bx’ (122, N = 372) 245.18, g .001; RMSEA = .052 (90% CI = .043-.062); CFI = .95; GFI = .92. 

Structural coefficients are unstandardized. CR = critical ratio, or parameter estimate divided by its standard error. 

Figure 5. Relationships among Variables in Study 3 

(Specific Features of PTSD and Interactions with Alcohol Abuse) 

Hi: -.68/CR= -6.12 

Hi: .49/CR=5.45 

Hi: .44/CR=7.75 LO: -.14/CR= -.41 

Lo: .37/CR=8.32 

Hi: -.93/CR= -7.18 

LO: - 1.1 9/CR= -6.7 1 

Hi: .60/CR= 1.12 

S-Bx2(227)=338.O4, E .01; RMSEA=.051 (90% CI = .040-.063); CFI=.93; GFIz.90. 0 Structural coefficients are unstandardized. CR = critical ratio, or parameter estimate divided by its standard error. 

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Insert Figure 6 here. 

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Overall, the results of this research project appear to offer support for the guiding trauma- @ focused perspective, that exposure to highly stressful life events in a man’s childhood or early 

adulthood and the psychological consequences may explain later partner battering and concomitant 

partner mental distress and child behavior problems. As a general statement, there appears to be a 

“chaining” of variables depicting pathways by which a man’s adverse childhood experiences are linked 

to difficulties in his subsequent marital and family life. In our studies, the perpetrator’s own family 

background characteristics and experiences contributed to early acting out behaviors; these were then 

influential in terms of his subsequent exposure to high levels of combat. Of course, there is the link 

between trauma exposure (combat and threat) and PTSD and alcohol abuse. The joint effects of these 

two latter variables on violence and partner mental distress (the Study 3 findings) are especially tragic, 

and the chain extends to negative child behavior in general (Study 1) and aggressive, delinquent, and 

other externalizing behaviors in particular (Study 4). 

antisocial behavior, combat exposure, and perceived threat are particularly noteworthy vis-&vis a 

“revictimization” interpretation. This network of relationships suggests that early distress and 

troublesome experiences in the family of origin may lead to the propensity for risky, destructive, and 

perhaps illegal activities, which then places the individual in jeopardy for exposure to additional 

serious life stressors in late adolescence and early adulthood. In our context, these later stressors are 

war-zone related, combat and the accompanying fear of bodily harm or death, and they have been 

discussed previously as a “selection bias” (see the review by King & King, 1991; King et al., 1996), 

drawing the more vulnerable members of society into harm’s way. But, they are not inconsistent with 

other contexts, for example, in the rape literature (e.g., Kilpatrick, Resnick, Saunders, & Best, 1998) 

wherein the individual’s early exposure seems to portend increased risk for later victimization. 

If we can extrapolate to persons in distressed childhood environments within chaotic 

communities, in general, then the results may point to a need for enhanced anti-risk-taking training for 

youth, especially those with documented exposure to traumatic events. Such training might emphasize 

“personal safety” education to include the avoidance of potentially dangerous environments, 

compensatory behaviors to quell sensation-seeking, and alternatives to violent responses to threatening 

stimuli. The goal, of course, would be to break the cycle of vulnerability. 

PTSD symptomatology, and perpetrator-to-partner violence are also quite interesting (see Figures 3 

and 6). First, there are the expected positive relationships between PTSD and violence and between 

perceived threat and violence: Those with more symptomatology or who manifested more fear in the 

war zone tended to be more violent toward their partners. Yet, the direct path between combat 

exposure and perpetrator-to-partner violence carries a negative sign, such that those exposed to high 

levels of combat perpetrated less violence upon their partners. This finding may appear 

counterintuitive. Indeed, a consideration of the negligible bivariate association between combat and 

violence, would suggest a suppressor effect (Cohen & Cohen, 1983). Upon further reflection, however, 

it may impart a message of hope. That is, controlling for, or taking into account, or removing the 

psychopathological consequences of combat (threat and PTSD), there may be a tendency at least for 

some who experience traumatic events to be less inclined to perpetrate violence on their partners. 

The pattern of associations among the perpetrator’s family of origin dysfunction, Fhildhood 

The associations among early adulthood trauma (combat exposure and perceived threat), 

Which leads to the role of PTSD as a critical gatekeeper variable through which various factors a in the perpetrator’s background make their felt impact on the family. Indeed, PTSD symptomatology 

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appeared to have a pervasive influence on other variables. In addition to paths to alcohol abuse, 

perpetrator-to-partner violence, and partner’s mental distress, its association with the perpetrator’s 

perspective on maritdfamily functioning was strong and negative: the greater the level of symptoms, 

the less positively the perpetrator viewed his family situation. The important point is that PTSD 

appeared to function the way we predicted, as a pivotal intermediary variable leading to violent 

behaviors and then to partner and child distress (see Figures 4 and 6). 

component symptom categories and the focus became the emotional numbing and hyperarousal 

features of the condition (see Figure 5). Here, we gain some insight into the mechanisms by which 

PTSD may operate to influence different aspects of the marriage and family. In line with our 

hypotheses, emotional numbing (our withdrawal and numbing variable) was particularly salient in its 

association with the perpetrator’s perspective on maritdfamily functioning, suggesting that this aspect 

of stress symptomatology inhibits positive interactions, interpersonal satisfaction, and feelings of 

warmth and intimacy with partner and children. The chain of associations continues through the 

partner’s perspective on marital/family fimctioning to partner’s mental distress (and subsequently to 

child behavior problems; see Figures 2 and 6). 

Also, as hypothesized, hyperarousal (our arousal and lack of control variable) was the feature 

of PTSD, when the condition was disaggregated, that appeared most critical to reports of violence in 

the family. But this conclusion is qualified on the basis of a significant interaction effect between 

hyperarousal and alcohol abuse (see Figure 5). Thus, as proposed, alcohol abuse seems to be a key 

exacerbation factor, and the effect of hyperarousal is stronger in the presence of higher levels of 

alcohol consumption. PTSD symptomatology, in and of itself, is harmful and places the partner at risk, 

but when coupled with alcohol, male-perpetrated partner battering is more likely to result. A practical 

implication is that interventions in domestic violence cases should recognize that the perpetrator’s 

symptoms of PTSD and comorbid substance abuse might be appropriate targets for treatment. 

Two final observations deserve mention. First, in the models depicted in Figures 2 and 10, the 

partner’s (mother’s) mental distress is strongly associated with the child’s behavior problems. In fact, 

this is the sole path that links all of the other variables to the offspring’s behavior. This finding points 

to the importance of the mother’s well-being, or lack thereof, in accounting for the well-being, or lack, 

thereof, of her child. Additionally, the perpetrator’s relationship with his own mother (see Figures 3 

and 6) emerges as having possible influence on two important variables in his family of procreation: a 

relatively weak relationship with perpetrator-to-partner violence and a somewhat stronger relationship 

with the perpetrator’s perspective on his own maritayfamily functioning. Therefore, it appears that the 

mother plays a substantial role in safeguarding the mental health of her child in the midst of highly 

stressful life events and negative family experiences, and perhaps the effect carries forward into the 

next generation. This interpretation reinforces advocacy for shelters and other programs that provide 

supportive services to battered women and their children. 

We believe that the resulting paradigm could be applicable to families within economically depressed 

neighborhoods in our nation’s larger cities, where, for example, men may be exposed to intensely 

stressful events in adolescence or young adulthood, which consequently has implications for ongoing 

community and domestic violence. Also, other occupational groups exposed to alternating periods of 

routine boredom and high stress, like law enforcement officers, may mirror this sample. Interestingly, 

these implications may be doubly meaningful, since a good portion of police, security, emergency, and 

Even more intriguing are the findings involving PTSD when it was disaggregated into its 

The generalizability of our findings should not be limited to war veterans and their families. 

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other public safety occupational groups are themselves military veterans. Findings might very well 

inform targeted employee assistance programs. 

and the mental health services community. In particular, we urge a recognition of the importance of 

trauma exposure and subsequent PTSD symptomatology and alcohol abuse in accounting for the 

perpetration of violence against women. In this regard, those expert in PTSD and comorbid substance 

abuse may be able to offer training and consultation services that are explicitly targeted at the 

recognition of classical signs and symptoms among perpetrators and appropriate avenues for effective 

intervention and treatment. 

I) We close with a recommendation for a strong alliance between the criminal justice community 

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