Resilience to exposure to intimate partner violence: Social support and attachment style as protective factors toward the prevention of intergenerational transmission of violence

There has been much research exploring the intergenerational transmission of violence: children of men who are violent are more likely to be violent themselves. Previous research has explored risk factors, but few have explored factors that protect those who have been exposed to intimate partner violence from perpetrating in their future relationships. The current study explored functional social support and quality of adult romantic attachment as two possible protective factors. Findings revealed that intimate partner violence was predictive of future perpetration. Adult romantic attachment quality and functional social support did not significantly moderate the relationship between exposure and perpetration. Analysis of effect sizes indicated that adult romantic attachment quality had a larger impact on perpetration than past functional social support. Likewise, past functional social support had a larger impact on perpetration than current functional social support did. Implications of the findings are discussed.