Intimate partner violence and depressive symptoms during adolescence and young adulthood

Using longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, we examine the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and depressive symptoms during adolescence and young adulthood (N = 1,273) while controlling for time-stable and time-varying correlates. Results show temporal changes in depressive symptoms, such that increases in depressive symptoms correspond to IPV exposure. While prior work has theorized that certain populations may be at increased psychological vulnerability from IPV, results indicate that both perpetration and victimization are associated with increases in depressive symptoms for both men and women, and irrespective of whether IPV exposure occurred in adolescence or young adulthood. Cumulative exposure to IPV does not appear to increase depressive symptoms beyond the effect observed for the most recent IPV exposure, but physical maltreatment by a parent does appear to diminish the association between IPV perpetration and depressive symptoms for a small subset of the sample.