Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
College of Nursing, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Aug;37(15-16):NP14411-NP14430. doi: 10.1177/08862605211006356. Epub 2021 Apr 24.
Relationships among African American (AA) parents living apart can be contentious. A common assumption is that men are the perpetrators and women are the victims of violence. Research examining the symmetry of intimate partner violence (IPV) has not focused enough on AA parents who are co-parenting their young children while living apart. The purpose of this study is to explore reports of IPV among non-cohabiting AA co-parents of 2-6-year-old children enrolled in the Dedicated African American Dad Study (DAADS). Our objectives for this study are to characterize the nature of intimate partner relationships among non-co-residing co-parents by exploring the association between the quality of relationship and co-parenting fathers' and mothers' Hurt, Insult, Threaten, and Scream (HITS) scores. The HITS is a domestic violence screening tool for use in the community. As part of the screening protocol for study inclusion, we administered the HITS to father-mother dyads. Fathers were ineligible for participation if either parent reported HITS cut-off scores >10 and identified safety concerns for themselves when interacting with their co-parent. Among DAAD study parenting dyads, we noted symmetry in reports of IPV (i.e., both parents reported elevated HITS scores). The most frequently elevated HITS items were "insult or talk down to" and "scream or curse" indicating the preponderance of verbal conflict among parents in the study. The nature of IPV among co-parents in this study is predominantly verbal. In light of the potential for reciprocity in IPV, interventions for families in this context should focus on communication and problem solving to support fathers and mothers and minimize child harm.
非同居的非裔美国家庭父母之间的关系可能存在争议。一个常见的假设是，男性是暴力的施害者，而女性是受害者。研究亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）的对称性并没有足够关注那些与年幼子女共同抚养子女但分居的非裔美国家庭父母。本研究的目的是探讨参加专门的非裔美国家庭父亲研究（DAADS）的 2-6 岁非同居共同父母中 IPV 的报告。我们本研究的目的是通过探讨关系质量与共同养育父亲和母亲的伤害、侮辱、威胁和尖叫（HITS）分数之间的关系，来描述非同居共同父母之间亲密伴侣关系的性质。HITS 是一种用于社区的家庭暴力筛查工具。作为研究纳入筛查方案的一部分，我们向父母二人组施测了 HITS。如果父母双方报告 HITS 截止分数>10 分，并在与共同父母互动时对自己的安全表示关注，则父亲没有资格参加。在 DAAD 研究育儿二人组中，我们注意到 IPV 报告存在对称性（即，父母双方都报告了 HITS 分数升高）。升高的 HITS 项目最常见的是“侮辱或贬低”和“尖叫或咒骂”，这表明研究中父母之间存在着占主导地位的言语冲突。这项研究中共同父母之间的 IPV 性质主要是言语上的。鉴于 IPV 可能存在相互作用，因此在此背景下的家庭干预措施应侧重于沟通和解决问题，以支持父母双方，最大限度地减少儿童伤害。
