More than 10 million adults in the United States experience intimate partner violence (IPV) annually in the form
of physical, sexual, and psychological aggression. Prior research shows that the prevalence rates of IPV peak
during emerging adulthood, between the ages of 18 and 25 years, and 17% to 39% of adults report
perpetrating physical aggression against a romantic partner. Victims of IPV are at increased risk for mental and
physical illness, substance abuse, risk behaviors, and academic disengagement. Despite those serious public
health consequences, current theoretical and empirical research has been unable to comprehensively explain
the etiology of IPV thereby failing to provide guidance for effective interventions. Attempting to add to existing
knowledge, the current study will examine the role of neuropsychological processing in IPV perpetration
capitalizing on a long follow-up time (18 months with 3 assessments) of 160 emerging adults. The study will
examine the following aims, whether, 1) natural maturation of executive functions and emotion regulation
abilities during emerging adulthood is associated with reduction of IPV perpetration; 2) executive functions and
emotion regulation abilities mediate the association between experiences of childhood violence in the family of
origin and IPV perpetration; and, 3) there are race/ethnicity and gender differences in the associations of
executive functions and emotion regulation with IPV perpetration. To maximize study external validity, half of
the participants will be recruited from the undergraduate population of Queens College in the borough of
Queens in NYC and the other half will be recruited from the broader community in Queens. Reflecting the
diversity of the borough of Queens, the sample population is racially diverse (i.e., 26% Asian, 15% Black, and
28% Hispanic) and about 54% female. At each assessment, participants will complete measures of IPV
perpetration, executive functions (attentional control, inhibition, monitoring, cognitive flexibility, planning and
working memory), and emotion regulation (measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia). Additional
questionnaires will assess exposure to violence in the family of origin, symptoms of depression, anxiety,
posttraumatic stress, substance use, and antisocial behaviors, which will be controlled in the data analyses.
The associations of executive functions, emotion regulation with IPV (aim 1) will be analyzed with Growth
Curve Models (GCM) in Mplus version 8.0 that will examine covariation of executive functions/emotion
regulation maturation and IPV perpetration over the three time points. Aim 2 will be assessed with mediation,
and aim 3 with moderation analyses in GCM. If assumptions for Structural Equation Modeling are met, latent
factors of executive functions/emotion regulation will be built, and included in GCM analyses instead of
manifest variables. The findings of the current longitudinal study will fill the gap in the field’s knowledge of the
role maturing executive functions and emotion regulation play in IPV perpetration during emerging adulthood.
This information will aid in the development of more effective IPV interventions.
