Individual and interpersonal risk factors for physical intimate partner violence perpetration by biological sex and ethnicity

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health problem that reaches across age, sex, and ethnicity. In this study, we examined risk factors for physical IPV perpetration among young adult males and females from four ethnic groups. Data were taken from Waves 1-3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The sample included 10,141 Wave 3 respondents (ages ranged from 18-27 years old) who reported being in a current romantic relationship. Physical IPV perpetration was reported by 14.10% of White, 23.28% of Black, 18.82% of Latino, and 18.02% of Asian males. Physical IPV perpetration was reported by 19.01% of White, 24.80% of Black, 25.97% of Latina, and 19.21% of Asian females. Following an ecological framework, proximal risk factors at intrapersonal and interpersonal levels were included in the analyses. Despite finding fairly consistent percentage of physical IPV perpetration across sample groups, the risk factors for physical IPV perpetration were rather uncommon across sex and ethnicity. Only 1 factor-psychological IPV perpetration toward a romantic partner-was consistently associated with physical IPV perpetration across all groups. Our findings have implications for tailoring prevention and intervention efforts toward risk factors of physical IPV perpetration that are uniquely associated with biological sex and ethnicity.