Observational learning can be defined as: “learning that occurs by observing, retaining, and replicating behaviour seen in others” (Boundless, 2017). For example, if parents resolve their conflicts through verbal and psychical abuse (domestic violence), the observing child learns that aggressive behaviours are acceptable and may begin to imitate those observed behaviours. The association between observing violence during childhood and future perpetration in adulthood (intergenerational transmission of violence) has been well established in literature. However, the literature examining this association is full of mixed findings, with some studies showing a direct correlation between childhood domestic violence exposure and future domestic violence …show more content…
A longitudinal study of a cohort of 10,000 young adults in New Zealand (Fergusson et al., 2006) found that the correlation between childhood exposure to domestic violence and future adult perpetration was relatively weak. The researchers contended that domestic violence perpetration was more frequent amongst participants whose childhoods were characterised by a number difficulties (e.g. parental mental ill health, unemployment and poverty) as opposed to witnessing domestic violence. Similarly, Ernst et al.’s (2007) cross-sectional study of 280 adults who visited an emergency department (33% of who had reported witnessing domestic violence as children), did not show a significant association between childhood exposure to domestic violence and future perpetration during adulthood. The researchers found adults that witnessed domestic violence as children were more likely to have a lower income, be younger and have been abused as a child, but were no more likely to become future perpetrators than their counterparts who had not witnessed acts of domestic violence. Although these studies found little to no association, other researchers have proven …show more content…
(2007) examined a sample of 1,099 adult males arrested for battery and found that as childhood domestic violence exposure increased, so did the frequency of domestic violence perpetration. They also contended that the severity of domestic violence offenses committed increased as exposure to violence during childhood increases and that men who had both witnessed domestic violence and been abused committed the most severe offenses. Similarly, a longitudinal analysis on a sample of 228 men on probation in Lake County, Illinois found comparable effects of observing domestic violence during childhood on future perpetration of domestic violence (Fowler et al.,2016). Their findings suggested that those who both witnessed and experienced domestic violence in their family during childhood were over four times more likely of becoming perpetrators compared to those who had never experienced or witnessed domestic