An Examination of the Association Between Childhood Maltreatment, Difficulties with Emotion Regulation and Dating Violence Perpetration in Chinese College Students

Objective: Given a prevalent rate of dating violence perpetration among college students in the world, it is important to understand the predictors that increase one’s risk for perpetrating dating violence. This study examined how childhood maltreatment and emotional regulation are related to dating violence perpetration among male and female college students. The study expected a unique association between difficulties in emotion regulation and dating violence perpetration after controlling for childhood maltreatment experiences.

Methods: The study used convenience sampling. The present study has analyzed a subsample of 752 Chinese college students with dating experience longer than one month (response rate 83%) in Suzhou city, East Mainland China, aged between 18 and 23 (M=19.25, SD=1.09), 54.3% female. Data were collected via anonymous self-report questionnaires administered in classes on campus. Main measures include Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2). First, the study examined the bivariate association between physical violence, childhood maltreatment, and emotion dysregulation. Then, multivariate regression models were conducted. The analysis runs separately by gender.

Results: 18.9% of the sample reported perpetrating physical violence and 5.9% reported perpetrating sexual violence. Females reported perpetrating significantly greater physical violence than males (23.5% vs. 13.4%; χ² =12.6, p=.000). Female students and male students did not differ on Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) scores. Among women, physical violence was correlated with childhood maltreatment and the DERS subscale of difficulties in goal-directed behavior. Among men, physical violence was correlated with childhood maltreatment, the DERS subscales of lack of emotional clarity, impulse control difficulties, nonacceptance of emotional response, difficulties in goal-directed behavior, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and DERS total.

 In the multivariate regression model for men, difficulties in emotion regulation was a significant predictor of physical violence perpetration after controlling for childhood maltreatment experiences and age. When six DERS subscales were added to the model instead of DERS total, only impulse control difficulties was significantly associated physical violence perpetration for men. Among women, emotion dysregulation and the DERS subscales were not significantly associated with physical violence after controlling for childhood maltreatment and age.

 Conclusion: The study improves the understanding of the association among childhood maltreatment, emotion regulation, and dating violence perpetration by gender. The association between emotion dysregulation and physical violence differed by gender. The study found a unique association between emotion dysregulation and dating violence perpetration beyond the effect of childhood maltreatment among male college students. This findings suggest that emotion dysregulation may be more strongly associated with physical violence in men than women among Chinese college students. The study indicates that intervention program for dating violence in Chinese college students requires addressing both childhood family violence exposure and emotion regulation.