Citation

Powers RA, Cochran JK, Maskaly J, Sellers CS. J. Interpers. Violence 2017; ePub(ePub): 886260517710486.

Affiliation

Texas State University, San Marcos, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0886260517710486

PMID

29294768

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the applicability of Akers's Social Learning Theory (SLT) to explain intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization. In doing so, we draw on the Intergenerational Transmission of Violence Theory (IGT) to extend the scope of SLT to the explanation of victimization and for a consideration of uniquely gendered pathways in its causal structure. Using a structural equation modeling approach with self-report data from a sample of college students, the present study tests the extent to which SLT can effectively explain and predict IPV victimization and the degree, if any, to which the social learning model is gender invariant. Although our findings are largely supportive of SLT and, thus, affirm its extension to victimization as well as perpetration, the findings are also somewhat mixed. More significantly, in line with IGT literature, we find that the social learning process is not gender invariant. The implications of the latter are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

gender; intergenerational transmission of violence; intimate partner violence; social learning; victimization