https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519839421 Journal of Interpersonal Violence 1–29 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0886260519839421 journals.sagepub.com/home/jiv Original Research Intimate Partner Violence: A Multinational Test of Cultural Spillover Theory Alexandra Lysova, PhD 1,2 and Murray A. Straus, PhD 3 Abstract Cultural spillover theory asserts that the prevalence of socially legitimate violence to attain ends for which there is widespread social approval is part of the explanation for the prevalence of illegitimate violence. This study was a test of the cultural spillover theory as it applies to intimate partner violence (IPV). Based on data from the International Dating Violence Study (IDVS) in 32 countries, we tested the proposition that agreement with socially approved forms of violence “spills over” into violence against an intimate partner. Two versions of an index to measure legitimate violence were constructed: (a) An individual-level legitimate violence index based on the beliefs and behavior of 14,252 university students in 32 nations in the IDVS and (b) a nation-level legitimate violence index consisting of the mean of the student scores on the legitimate violence index for each of the 32 nations in the IDVS. We used the revised Conflict Tactics Scales to obtain the data on physical violence and injuries inflicted by the students in the IDVS. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypothesized relation of the individual student legitimate violence index to 1 Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada 2 Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia 3 University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA Corresponding Author: Alexandra Lysova, Assistant Professor, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6. Email: alysova@sfu.ca 839421JIV XX X 10.1177/0886260519839421Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceLysova and Straus research-article 2019