Adverse Childhood Events and Substance Misuse in Men Who Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence

• Author: Enrique Bonilla-Algovia,Esther Rivas-Rivero
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211013519
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Date: 01 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211013519

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2022, Vol. 66(8) 876 –895

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211013519

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Article

Adverse Childhood Events

and Substance Misuse in Men

Who Perpetrated Intimate

Partner Violence

Esther Rivas-Rivero1 and Enrique Bonilla-Algovia1

Abstract

Adverse childhood events related to violence suffered have developmental

consequences such as the reproduction of such violence in intimate relationships

and substance misuse in the later life trajectory. The objective of this study was to

analyze the relationship between suffering adverse childhood events and excessive

consumption of alcohol and drugs in 120 men, with a mean age of 40.51 years

(SD = 11.06), who have abused women in a relationship. The results indicate that those

who suffered abuse in childhood and other adverse childhood events in the family of

origin consumed alcohol and drugs in excess. Furthermore, the regression models

show that alcohol consumption is related to previous substance use by parents, while

drug use is related to leaving home due to family conflicts. Also, the consumption of

alcohol and other substances is likewise associated with consumption by parents and

conflicts within the family. The size of the effect of the relationship increases when

different forms of poly-victimization coexist. Conflict treatment is necessary in any

setting, especially when it takes place in the family environment and at an early age,

to avoid the transmission of maladaptive behaviors associated with substance misuse

and violence.

Keywords

alcohol, drugs, violence against women, adverse childhoods events, aggressors

Violence against women in intimate relationships has been defined as a public health

issue of epidemic proportions (Lila et al., 2016; McCarthy et al., 2018). It is the most

common form of violence women experience, and the percentage of women who

1Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

Corresponding Author:

Esther Rivas-Rivero, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, C/ San Cirilo, s/n, Madrid 28801, Spain.

Email: esther.rivas@uah.es

1013519IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211013519International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyRivas-Rivero and Bonilla-Algovia

research-article2021

Rivas-Rivero and Bonilla-Algovia 877

suffer physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of their partner is around 30%

(Devries et al., 2013). These estimates could be as high as 70% in some regions of

Africa and Asia (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). In Spain, according to the

Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality (2015), 12.5% of women 16 years

and older have suffered physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by their partner or

ex-partner at some point in their life. The differences in these rates may be due to a

greater tolerance for and justification of violence against women in accordance with

socially-established ideologies about masculinity that attribute to men qualities such

as toughness, control, and power, which could manifest through the use of violence

(Jewkes et al., 2015).

Related to violence against women, violence against minors is also a public health

problem: worldwide, it has been found that 36.3% of children have suffered psycho-

logical violence, 23% physical violence, and 18% of girls and 7.6% of boys are vic-

tims of some form of sexual abuse in different contexts (Stoltenborgh et al., 2015).

Thus, both forms of exercising violence against members of the family unit could be

based on the heteropatriarchal concept of the family according to which the head of the

family uses violence to demand obedience and submission in the face of any threat to

his masculine hegemony (Ruggles, 2015). In this context, some authors indicate that

around 33% of people who were victims of abuse in childhood continue to perpetuate

abuse, a rate six times higher than the general population that has not suffered abuse at

early ages (Choi et al., 2019).

According to Davis et al. (2015), witnessing violence in the family of origin is a

relevant factor for predicting violent behavior in adults. Several studies support the

inter-generational nature of gender-based violence and have established that close to

30% of minors who suffer or witness violence will present these behaviors in adult-

hood (Guille, 2004), since aggression tends to be interpreted incorrectly and, faced

with interpersonal conflict, they turn to violent solutions (Ison-Zintilini & Morelato-

Giménez, 2008). The term intergenerationality has been used to allude to the possibil-

ity that minors who have been exposed to gender-based violence will repeat this

violence in their adult life (Lizana, 2012). Furthermore, there is evidence that there is

a relationship between being a victim or witness of family violence during childhood

or adolescence and an increased risk of intimate partner violence against women in

adulthood (Gover et al., 2008). Some authors state that men with a prior history of

violence in their family of origin are likely to be violent again in the future (Monahan,

1992; VanderEnde et al., 2016), and that low quality of family life could be a good

predictor for the appearance of such violence (Lehnig et al., 2019). However, the

diversity of results in the study of the intergenerational transmission of violence will

depend on the type of design, the sample, the measures and instruments used, as well

as the duration of follow-up, so that limitations are pointed out among which there is

a greater presence of studies on victimization in women (Shakoor et al., 2020). Still, it

should be noted that childhood experiences of abuse rarely consist of a single type of

victimization, and that the risk of subsequent perpetration appears to be high and could

have serious consequences for later development (Davis et al., 2015). Dynamics

within the family, especially between parents and children, are very influential, and