A Longitudinal Investigation on the Role of Negative Maternal Parenting on Intimate Partner Violence and the Protective Potential of Prosocial Peer Socialization

Intimate partner violence (IPV) negatively impacts individuals’ physical and mental health. Negative parenting in adolescence predicts future IPV. Peer relationships also predict future IPV, due to peer socialization of harmful relationship norms. However, much less is known about protective factors for IPV. One potential protective factor is peer prosocial socialization. Thus, the proposed study investigates whether negative maternal parenting during adolescence predicts adulthood IPV, and the moderation of adolescent peer prosocial socialization. The sample consists of 371 individuals (T1 M age = 16.98 years, SD = 0.76; T2 M age = 28.99 years, SD = 0.81; 48.2% White, 29.9% Black, 9.7% Latino, 10.5% other). A latent moderated structural equation model revealed negative maternal parenting did not significantly predict IPV in adulthood, and no significant interaction was found between negative maternal parenting and prosocial peers. Prosocial peer socialization directly predicted IPV, indicating peer socialization of prosocial behaviors in adolescence was associated with lower IPV in adulthood. Findings emphasize the importance of peer relationships and socialization of prosocial norms in reducing adult IPV involvement.