The complexity of lived experiences and the need to move beyond quantitative methods to understand intergenerational violence

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future work and limitations and stated challenges of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2025 and 2026, spanning 2 journals.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Predicting psychological abuse in intimate relationships: Insights from perceptions, victimisation, and perpetration histories in South Africa (2025) · Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk · doi

  The findings on how past victimisation and perpetration influence future psychological abuse underscore the importance of trauma-informed approaches and the need for prevention efforts by social workers that address the normalisation and perpetuation of the intergenerational cycle of abuse. Supporting both victims and perpetrators is essential to breaking the cycle of abuse, as focusing solely on victims is insufficient. Without treatment, perpetrators often move on to new victims. Early interventions, such as counselling, rehabilitation and legal consequences, are critical for preventing abuse, fostering healthy relationships and disrupting generational cycles of abuse (Cannon et al., 2016; Eckhardt et al., 2013; Murphy et al., 2022). Helping victims understand how their past experiences contribute to their vulnerability aids recovery, while assisting perpetrators in linking past and present behaviours reduces reoffending. Social workers should receive training to recognize and intervene in psychological abuse cases and use cognitive therapy to address harmful thought patterns that sustain abuse. Incorporating education on healthy relationships and conflict resolution into awareness and educational programmes is essential (Murphy et al., 2022; Trabold et al., 2020). These programmes should also challenge underlying socio-cultural attitudes, such as normalisation and patriarchy, that perpetuate abuse. Given the significant impact of financial abuse, especially among younger individuals, social workers should prioritise financial literacy, economic independence and connecting clients to resources to prevent abuse and improve wellbeing (Chowbey & Sharp-Jeffs, 2023; Murphy et al., 2022; Postmus et al., 2020; Trabold et al., 2020). Training programmes must include content on the nature of psychological abuse and its indicators, as well as ways to enhance community support for victims. Behaviour-change strategies, such as skill-building and role-playing healthy interactions, should take precedence, since awareness of perceptions has less influence on abusive tendencies. Recognising controlling, isolating, neglecting and ignoring behaviours as forms of psychological abuse is crucial for effective assessment and intervention. Social workers can educate clients on identifying abuse, promote healthy relationship practices and address stressors such as financial strain. Incorporating lessons on psychological abuse into social work training equips professionals to manage such cases effectively. Therapeutic approaches, including cognitive-behavioural therapy, trauma-informed therapy, couples therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction can address both victimisation and perpetration, thus reducing abuse (Murphy & Maiuro, 2009; Murphy et al., 2022). Shifting harmful discourses and cultural practices that perpet

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: abuse psychological social victims murphy workers address healthy therapy past perpetrators training programmes financial victimisation
• Adverse Childhood Experiences and Intimate Partner Violence: A Life Course Perspective (2026) · Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma · doi

  While this study yielded some interesting results, there were a few limitations which should be considered when inter- preting the findings. 1. Given that this study focused on childhood experiences of adversity, participants relied on memory to provide retrospective descriptions. Recall bias may have influ- enced the associations between ACEs and IPV and as such, may not fully capture all the realities of the past experiences. According to Shields (2020), people who experienced violence in adulthood may more readily recall traumatic childhood experiences, which could possibly inflate the associations while, participants who experienced early traumatic childhood experiences may be less likely to report IPV (or report its severity) in adulthood because of the normalisation or habituation of violence, thus having the potential to weaken the associations. 2. Interviews were conducted on survivors and two male participants who provided indirect information on the perpetrators. The findings reflect survivors’ lived expe- riences and advocates’ professional perspectives rather than direct perpetrator narratives. Therefore, these find- ings should be interpreted with caution, as indirect and indicative, rather than representative of perpetrators’ direct pathways. This limitation is discussed to appro- priately contextualise the scope and applicability of IPV findings. 3. All survivors in the study were female, which may have presented a male bias of IPV. Males as victims or perpe- trators of IPV are generally a difficult group to target or recruit, and as such, resulting in an all-female group of survivor experiences. 4. The study used snowball sampling, a non-probability type sample. The findings using non-probability sam- pling must be interpreted with caution, as these may not reflect the true pervasiveness of the IPV in context.

  generallimitationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: experiences childhood participants associations survivors recall bias experienced violence adulthood traumatic report male indirect perpetrators
• Narratives about Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Violence in Families: Different Routes, Same Goal (2026) · Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma · doi

  The study acknowledges the complexity of lived experiences and the need to move beyond quantitative methods to understand intergenerational violence. The analysis requires careful attention to the form, function, and meaning of the narratives, as well as the ethical responsibility to re-represent participants' voices with care. The study highlights the importance of acknowledging and processing relational traumas in preventing intergenerational transmission of violence, which can be a challenging and ongoing process for parents.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: study acknowledges complexity lived experiences need move beyond

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