Childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization are major psychiatric risk factors. Maltreatment substantially increases the likelihood of subsequent IPV victimization, but what drives this association is poorly understood. We analyzed retrospective self-reports of maltreatment and IPV victimization in 12,794 participants (58% women, 42% men) from the Twins Early Development Study at ages 21 and 26 using quantitative genetic methods. We estimated the etiological influences common to maltreatment and IPV, and the effect of maltreatment on IPV beyond such common influences. Participants who reported childhood maltreatment ( ~ 7% of the sample) were 3 times more likely than their peers to also report IPV victimization at age 21, 4 times more likely at 26. The association between maltreatment and IPV was mostly due to environmental influences shared by co-twins (42–43%) and genetic influences (30–33%), as well as nonshared environmental influences (25–27%). The association between maltreatment and IPV was similar for women and men, but its etiology partly differed by sex. Maltreatment had a moderate effect on IPV in phenotypic models (β = 0.25–0.30), decreasing to a small-to-moderate range in causally informative models accounting for their common etiology (β = 0.15–0.21). Risk factors common to maltreatment and IPV victimization are largely familial in origin, environmental and genetic. Even considering common risk factors, experiencing maltreatment may be causally related to subsequent IPV victimization. Interventions promoting safe intimate relationships among young adults exposed to maltreatment are warranted and should address family-level environmental risk and individual-level risk shaped by genetics.

童年虐待和亲密伴侣暴力 （IPV） 受害是主要的精神风险因素。虐待大大增加了后续 IPV 受害的可能性，但人们对这种关联的驱动因素知之甚少。我们使用定量遗传学方法分析了双胞胎早期发育研究的 12,794 名参与者 （58% 女性，42% 男性） 在 21 岁和 26 岁时对虐待和 IPV 受害的回顾性自我报告。我们估计了虐待和 IPV 的常见病因影响，以及虐待对 IPV 的影响超出了这些常见影响。报告童年虐待的参与者（~样本的 7%）在 21 岁时报告遭受 IPV 受害的可能性是同龄人的 3 倍，在 4 岁时是 26 倍。虐待与 IPV 之间的关联主要是由于双胞胎共有的环境影响 （42-43%） 和遗传影响 （30-33%），以及非共享的环境影响 （25-27%）。女性和男性的虐待与 IPV 之间的关联相似，但其病因部分因性别而异。在表型模型中，虐待对 IPV 有中度影响 （β = 0.25-0.30），在解释其共同病因的因果信息模型中下降到小到中等范围 （β = 0.15-0.21）。虐待和 IPV 受害的常见风险因素主要是家庭起源、环境和遗传因素。即使考虑到常见的风险因素，遭受虐待也可能与随后的 IPV 受害有因果关系。在遭受虐待的年轻人之间促进安全亲密关系的干预措施是必要的，并且应该解决家庭层面的环境风险和遗传学塑造的个人层面的风险。