Across race/ethnicity and genders, exposure to parental violence was associated with increased odds of AUD and TUD, and after adjusting for other risk factors and psychiatric comorbidities, only TUD. Associations among parental violence with AUD and TUD also differed by gender, and for AUD also differed by race/ethnicity, and by race/ethnicity and gender. Witnessing parental violence in childhood has been linked to mental health and substance use problems throughout the life-course (Howell et al. 2014), and some prior evidence supports similar gender differences. Schiff et al. (2014) found that offspring of women experiencing IPV were more likely to manifest AUD, CUD, and TUD in young adulthood. Similar to the current study’s findings, stronger associations of witnessing IPV and AUD were observed among females. Smith et al. (2010) reported that adolescent exposure to IPV predicted increased odds of AUD (and depression) in early adulthood among females. Results from the current study extend this previous research in demonstrating associations of the frequency of exposure to parental violence and adult AUD and TUD across various racial/ethnic and gender groups in the US general population.
