Post-Baccalaureate University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Background: Although the intergenerational transmission of violence (IGTV; Widom, 1989) has been widely studied, little is known about its prevalence within certain ethnic groups.
Objective: The current study examined the prevalence of verbal, physical, and sexual family-of-origin aggression across two generations as reported by a sample of Middle Eastern adults.
Method: 111 Middle Eastern adults (72% cisgender women; 46% English as a Second Language) living in Canada were recruited for an online survey via a university participant pool, an email sent to all university students at a Canadian university, university student organizations and local community agencies serving Middle Eastern peoples in Southwest Ontario, social media sites targeting Middle Eastern people, and the Canadian Psychological Association’s research portal. Of relevance to the current study, participants completed questionnaires assessing family-of-origin violence (Family-of-Origin Aggression Scale [FOO; Rosenbaum & O’Leary, 1981]; Childhood Experiences Survey [CES; Ruscio, 2001]), a series of questions related to acts assessed by the FOO and CES created for the study to measure intergenerational violence, and questions assessing participants' demographic background.
Results: Roughly 50%-62% reported having experienced parent-to-child physical aggression or having witnessed interparental verbal or physical aggression and 2% reported father-perpetrated sexual abuse. About 14%-21% reported grandparent-to-parent physical abuse and 14%-24% reported grandfather-to-grandmother and 7%-11% reported grandmother-to-grandfather verbal/physical aggression, with about half to one third of participants being unsure about their parents’ exposure to family violence. Mean ratings of confidence in participants’ reports of their parents’ exposure to family violence was 3.7 out of 5.0. Chi-square tests indicated that those with a history of family-of-origin aggression were significantly more likely to also report that their parents were exposed to family-of-origin aggression for all forms of aggression (ps = .001 to .05), except for father-to-child sexual aggression (p = .66).
Conclusions: Findings provide strong evidence for the IGTV and suggest that there are alarmingly high rates of family-of-origin aggression among Middle Eastern adults living in Canada. Results will be considered through a cultural lens. They suggest that it is important for researchers and practitioners to assess for intergenerational violence within specific ethnic groups, including those who identify as Middle Eastern.
