Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are likely to develop behavior problems, but findings are mixed regarding whether girls and boys are differentially affected. The present study proposes that gender interacts with gender role adherence and type of IPV to which they are exposed to influence behavior problems. Behavior problems were examined among (N=177) 4-year-old children exposed to IPV. It was hypothesized that children exposed to coercive controlling violence (CCV), a type of IPV characterized by male psychological control over a female, would be more likely to develop traditional gender role adherence than children exposed to situational couple violence (SCV), a type of IPV that is situation-specific, or children not exposed to IPV. Research suggests that individuals with traditional gender role adherence are more likely to develop negative psychological outcomes than those with non-traditional gender role adherence. Thus, it was hypothesized that children exposed to CCV with traditional gender role adherence would have more behavior problems than other children. Results found that children develop gender role adherence related to the type of IPV to which they are exposed. Furthermore, girls with non-traditional gender role adherence had fewer behavior problems than girls with traditional gender role adherence, but the opposite pattern was observed in boys. These findings suggest that gender cannot fully explain how IPV exposure influences child outcomes, as gender groups are heterogeneous and gender interacts with other factors (e.g., gender role adherence) to influence children's behavior problems.
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