ABSTRACT
Early family violence research overlooked the mediating role of “courtship violence” between exposure to childhood family violence and marital violence. It is an entire field of study and has generated a diversity of terminology including: adolescent relationship abuse, teen/adolescent dating violence, dating aggression. The conceptual frameworks of adult and adolescent initiative partner violence (IPV) have changed substantially in the past decade, shifting away from the initial socio-cognitive etiological theory of IPV for one model of married couple violence. The biological sensitivity to context (BSC) theory posits that there is considerable individual variance in stress reactivity, the purpose of which is to mediate vulnerability or sensitivity to external stimuli, which may range from injurious to protective. The iteration of BSC theory is the Adaptive Calibration Model which posits that changes in the stress response system in relation to environment are adaptive and meant to optimise experience and functioning.
