Relationship Instability in Midlife: The Long (H)arm of Youth Violent Victimization

• In Event: Advances in Research on Romantic Relationships, Crime, & Victimization

Abstract

Marriage remains the capstone experience defining success in midlife, and adults in stable, high-quality marriages have better physical health and emotional well-being. Yet there are many stressors compromising heterosexual marital relationships in midlife, including early life factors like conflict and abuse. We illustrate how experiencing violence in adolescence alters intimate relationship trajectories, exploring the implications of such processes for early coresidential union formation and subsequent relationship instability in midlife. Drawing on five waves of Add Health data, we find that, by midlife, victims of youth violence are less likely to be married, more likely to be divorced/separated or never married, and have cycled through more marital and coresidential relationships. Even those victims in relationships in midlife are less happy than non-victimized peers. Regardless of the timing of victimization (early vs. late adolescence), victims of youth violence are similarly harmed, exhibiting similar trajectories of relationship instability in midlife.

Authors

• Tara Warner, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• David Warner, University of Alabama at Birmingham