Psychosocial Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Exposure in Maltreated Adolescents: Assessing More than IPV Occurrence

The majority of research on the psychosocial impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure for children has focused on
IPV occurrence. The current study extended this research by examining three dimensions of IPV exposure: frequency, proximity,
and severity, and tested whether these dimensions predicted variance in adolescents’ psychosocial problems over-and-above
that accounted for by IPV occurrence. Participants included 140 adolescents and their caregivers, who were recruited for an
intervention involving maltreated youth placed in out-of-home care. After controlling for IPV occurrence, exposure to community
violence, and severity of maltreatment, results indicated a positive association between the multidimensional IPV index and
youth report of psychosocial problems. There was also a trend for a positive association between the IPV index and caregiver
report of psychosocial problems for boys. The study’s results are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention
researchers and child welfare agencies.