Perceived Discrimination, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Alcohol Use and Intimate Partner Violence Patterns Among Hispanic Emerging Adults

Introduction: Every year millions of men and women in the US are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), with data indicating that between 20% and 50% of adults experience some form of IPV in their lifetimes.  The extended reach of IPV, and the lack of knowledge regarding effective prevention programming, underscores the need for research that can advance scientific understanding of the etiology of IPV and identify factors that can inform prevention program design.  Emerging adult minority populations are among the most vulnerable segments of the population, yet empirical evidence regarding the role of sociocultural stressors in IPV outcomes is limited.  We examine the association between perceived discrimination, adverse childhood experiences, and alcohol use in three distinct classifications of IPV: victim only, perpetrator only, and bidirectional IPV and whether our hypothesized relationships varied across gender.

Method: The analytic sample is comprised of Hispanic, emerging adults (n=1,265) that participated in Project RED (Reteniendo y Entendiendo Diversidad para Salud), a study designed to investigate acculturation patterns and substance use among Hispanic adolescents in Southern California.  Separate generalized structural equation models were run to test the hypothesized paths between adverse childhood experiences (physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and exposure to parental intimate partner violence before the age of 18) perceived discrimination, past 30 day alcohol use and unidirectional and bidirectional IPV outcomes among men and women. 

Results: Our results indicate that perceived discrimination, a commonly reported sociocultural stressor among Hispanics, may play an important role in IPV outcomes. Perceived discrimination was positively associated with the majority of IPV outcomes across gender, with the exception of physical perpetration, a path that was only significant for males.  Perceived discrimination was consistently associated with past 30-day drinking among men, but not women whereas adverse childhood experiences were predictive of IPV outcomes for females, but not males.  Past 30-day alcohol use was associated with unidirectional IPV for women and bidirectional IPV for both men and women.

Conclusion:  Studies that integrate developmental and sociocultural approaches to health behavior research will improve theoretical and empirical understanding of IPV behavior patterns by gender and inform culturally relevant approaches to prevention and intervention programming. The positive association between perceived discrimination, alcohol-use behavior, and IPV typologies provides preliminary evidence of unique, culturally specific risks that continue to be understudied in the scientific literature.