Intergenerational Transmission of Family Violence and Depressive Symptoms in Urban Thailand

• Author: Erin Madden,Xiaohe Xu,Bangon Sirisunyaluck,Heather Edelblute,Thankam Sunil
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12576
• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019

X X University of Texas at San Antonio and Sichuan University

T S University of Texas at San Antonio∗

H E West Chester University∗∗

E M University of Texas at San Antonio∗∗∗

B S Maejo University∗∗∗∗

Intergenerational Transmission of Family Violence

and Depressive Symptoms in Urban Thailand

Objective: This study examines linkagesbetween

childhood exposure to family violence (FV) and

adulthood depressive symptoms, directly and

indirectly, through adulthood experience of FV

among ever-married Thai women.

Background: A growing body of research has

shown that childhood experience of FV is not

only intergenerationally transmitted but also

signicantly associated with negative men-

tal health outcomes in adulthood. However,

prior research is limited to Western contexts,

with little known about how intergenerational

pathways of FV operate outside of

the West.

School of Public Administration, Sichuan University,China

and Department of Sociology, Universityof Texas at San

Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78259

(xiaohe.xu@utsa.edu).

∗Department of Sociology, Universityof Texas at San

Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78259.

∗∗Department of Health, West Chester University,207

Sturzebecker Health Science Center, 855 South New Street,

West Chester,PA 19383.

∗∗∗Department of Sociology, University of Texasat San

Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78259.

∗∗∗∗Faculty of Liberal Arts, Maejo University, Chiangmai,

Thailand.

Key Words: abuse, childhood, depression, domest violence,

intergenerational relationship,intimate partner violence.

Method: Data come from a probability sam-

ple of ever-married women living in Bangkok,

Thailand, in 2000 (N=811). The dependent

variable is self-reported depressive symptoms

measured by the 20-item Center for Epidemio-

logic Studies Depression Scale and the key inde-

pendent variables are direct and indirect expo-

sures to FV in childhood. The path models are

estimated to incorporate the mediating variables

of adulthood experience of FV via the Revised

Conict Tactics Scales.

Results: Our path analyses reveal that

the intergenerational transfer of FV occurs,

regardless of the form of violence experienced

by ever-married Thai women during childhood

or adulthood. Moreover, although experiencing

FV during childhood tends to exert direct effects

on depressive symptoms in adulthood, witness-

ing FV during childhood affects depressive

symptoms in adulthood only indirectly.

Conclusion: Taken together, our ndings

demonstrate that childhood exposure to FV

elicits long-term detrimental effects on women’s

adulthood experience of FV and mental health

in urban Thailand.

I

During the past several decades, there has been

growing evidence for associations between

1004 Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (August 2019): 1004–1015

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12576