Child maltreatment and intimate partner violence among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians

Using a nationally representative Canadian sample, this study found that Indigenous people faced a higher risk of both child maltreatment and intimate partner violence. Childhood exposure to violence and direct abuse were each linked to a greater risk of intimate partner violence in adulthood. Together with other risk factors, child maltreatment explained Indigenous people’s elevated risk, which is consistent with the effects of historical and ongoing colonial trauma. Reducing this risk will require preventing child maltreatment and its harms and addressing the broader impacts of that trauma.