Examining Mediators in the Assocaition between Adolescent Racial Discrimination and Adulthood Intimate Partner Violence

• In Event: Racial Discrimination and Prejudice and Related Issues

Abstract

While much research has shown that racial discrimination has an impact on individual outcomes, including crime and violence (e.g. McCord & Ensminger 2003; Simons et al., 2006), little research has examined the impact of discrimination on intimate partner violence (IPV). Existing theories suggest that this association will be indirect via an individual’s responses to the stress of discrimination. Using longitudinal data from the Family and Community Health Study, we use an all African American sample to examine anger, alcohol use problems, and a hostile view of relationships as mediators linking discrimination in adolescence to adulthood IPV. Each of these mediators is supported by a different theoretical perspective including Agnew’s strain theory (anger), the self-medication hypothesis (alcohol problems), and the social schematic theory of crime (Simons and Burt 2011; hostile view of relationships). According to SEM analysis, a hostile view of relationships and anger mediated the effect of discrimination on IPV for women. Among men, while anger and alcohol problems were each related to both discrimination and IPV, only alcohol problems significantly mediated this association. The indirect effect via anger approached significance. These results demonstrate that racial discrimination had an impact on IPV almost 10 years later through the proposed mediators.

Authors

• Tara Elizabeth Sutton, University of Georgia

• Leslie Gordon Simons, University of Georgia