Can a Parenting Intervention to Prevent Early Conduct Problems Interrupt Girls’ Risk for Intimate Partner Violence 10 Years Later?

This study tests whether a parenting intervention for families of preschoolers at risk for conduct problems can prevent later risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Ninety-nine preschoolers at familial risk for conduct problems were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Ten years later, 45 preschoolers and 43 of their siblings completed an assessment of their romantic relationships, including measures of physical and psychological IPV. The study focuses on the 54 females, including targets (n = 27) and siblings (n = 27) who participated in a 10-year follow-up (M age = 16.5, SD = 5.2, range = 10–28). Using an intent-to-treat (ITT) design, multivariate regressions suggest that females from families randomly assigned to intervention in early childhood scored lower than those in the control condition on perceptions of dating violence as normative, beliefs about IPV prevalence, exposure to IPV in their own peer group, and expected sanction behaviors for IPV perpetration and victimization. Findings suggest that early parenting intervention may reduce association of high-risk females with aggressive peers and partners in adolescence.