Does Childhood Coercive Control Exposure Explain the Relationship Between Domestic Violence Exposure and Child Abuse and Maltreatment?

Background Childhood exposure to domestic violence (CEDV) is a global epidemic that often co-occurs with child abuse and maltreatment (CAM; i.e., dual exposure). However, empirical understandings of the impact of CEDV and CAM are stymied by less sophisticated and murky conceptualizations and measurements of CEDV that, until more recently, also neglected the salient construct of coercive control. Objective This study examined the extent to which coercive control exposure drives the well-studied dual exposure phenomenon, including less-studied forms of CAM in the interpersonal violence literature, psychological and behavioral control, among a sample of young adults. Methods 147 young adults with CEDV ( n  = 100) and without ( n  = 47) participated in an online survey on family violence. The sample comprised predominately White, college-attending, middle-class women in the United States. Results Study results suggest that physical violence and coercive control exposure are salient constructs when assessing dual exposure. CEDV rooted in higher levels of coercive control exacerbated the risk of CAM and was significantly associated with experiencing psychological control in adolescence and behavioral control in young adulthood. In contrast, physical violence exposure better explained the relationship between CEDV and psychological control during young adulthood. Conclusions These results suggest that in addition to assessing physical violence frequency, coercive control is essential for delving deeper into dual exposure. Findings emphasize the essentiality of greater collaboration between DV and CAM professionals and systems, given their extensive overlap, particularly with families in which there is greater exposure to father-to-mother coercive control and physical violence.