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![]() ![]() ![]() Animals were maintained under controlled conditions (12 h light/dark cycle lights on at 0700 hours 22☒ ☌). The female experimental subjects were virgin Wistar rats acquired at 10-week-old from Charles River Laboratories. The male experimental subjects were the offspring (F0) of Wistar Han rats purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Lyon, France) that were bred in our animal house, as well as the offspring (F1) from F0 male and F0 females. To this end, we investigated whether the male offspring of peripubertally stressed males displayed increased aggression toward a female partner. Furthermore, we sought to evaluate whether biological factors could also account for the transfer of a behavioral profile of pathological aggression to an intimate partner across generations. To determine whether peripubertal stress would result in abnormal aggressive behavior against a female partner, males from both the stress and the control groups were individually paired with a female and left to cohabit in a home cage for 21 days. 16 In this model, fear was induced in a non-social context, which allowed the exclusion of potential vicarious social learning. To seek evidence for the contribution of biological factors to the intergenerational transmission of intimate partner violence, we selected an animal model (that is, devoid of human cultural connotations) whereby exposing male rats to fear-inducing experiences from juvenility to puberty (that is, the peripubertal period ranging from postnatal days P28–P42 subsequently referred to as peripubertally stressed rats) was shown to produce pathological aggression against males during adulthood. 9 Most of the studies directed at identifying risk factors at the biological level are cross-sectional studies focused mainly on demographics, live stressful experiences, 10, 11 mental disorders 12, 13 and substance abuse, 14, 15 remaining unclear whether those biological factors are the cause or correlated factors of the violence perpetrated by the abusive partner. Despite increasing evidence that early exposure to stress can affect the neurodevelopmental trajectories that influence an individual's behavior in adulthood, 6, 7, 8 whether biological factors can account for the intergenerational transmission of intimate partner violence, both within an individual lifetime and across generations, remains under-researched. 4, 5 To date, the prevailing etiological theories proposed to explain intimate partner violence have emphasized two prominent factors: (i) the cultural environment, particularly the impact of male dominance in society (Cultural theory), or (ii) social learning, whereby children learn patterns of violence by watching relevant early figures-parents in particular-that are reproduced in intimate partner relationships in adulthood, which enables violence to be transmitted from one generation to the next (Social learning theory). 1, 3 Although the roots of partner violence may be complex, childhood exposure to violence, either as a victim or a witness, has been identified as a major risk factor for intimate violence perpetration. 1, 2 Despite increasing efforts to develop prevention and intervention programs that address intimate partner violence, evidence of positive outcomes is scarce because of an insufficient understanding of its causes. Intimate partner violence, particularly against women, is a pervasive worldwide phenomenon with serious societal and public health consequences for individuals, families, communities and societies. With the caution required when translating animal work to humans, our findings extend current psychosocial explanations of the transgenerational transmission of intimate partner violence by strongly suggesting an important role for biological factors. Both the females that cohabited with the stressed males and those that cohabited with their male offspring showed behavioral (including anxiety- and depression-like behaviors), physiological (decreased body weight and basal corticosterone levels) and neurobiological symptoms (increased activity in dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons in response to an unfamiliar male) resembling the alterations described in abused and depressed women. Their offspring also showed increased aggression toward females in the absence of postnatal father–offspring interaction or any other exposure to violence. Using an animal model devoid of human cultural factors, we showed that male rats became highly aggressive against their female partners as adults after exposure to non-social stressful experiences in their youth. A major risk factor for violence perpetration is childhood exposure to violence, prompting the proposal that social learning is a major contributor to the transgenerational transmission of violence. Intimate partner violence is a ubiquitous and devastating phenomenon for which effective interventions and a clear etiological understanding are still lacking.
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