Children exposed to intimate partner violence: Influences of parenting, family distress, and siblings.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate associations between maternal stress, parenting behavior, and sibling adjustment in relation to child trauma symptoms in families with and without a history of intimate partner violence (IPV). Maternal report was used to measure maternal stress and child trauma symptoms, whereas parenting behavior was assessed through an observational measure. Participants consisted of mothers with 2 school-age siblings recruited from the community. Results indicated that violent families reported higher levels of maternal stress and sibling trauma symptoms than nonviolent families, although no differences were found in parenting behavior. Sibling trauma symptoms and negative maternal behavior toward a sibling were strong predictors of trauma symptoms in younger siblings exposed to IPV but only modest predictors for older siblings. Moderator analyses showed that in IPV-affected families, the trauma symptoms of older siblings were related to the trauma symptoms of younger siblings when maternal stress was high.

Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Mothers currently experiencing IPV compared with mothers without a history of IPV showed equal parenting behavior, but it was found that mothers experiencing IPV directed more positive behaviors toward older children than younger children. 63 Parenting after experiencing a TBI is better studied than parenting after IPV, although not well understood. A Danish study looked at outcomes of children from families with one parent having a brain injury and found a relationship between higher stress levels of the "healthy" (no brain injury) parent and higher stress levels of the child.…”

Historical Oppression and Indigenous Families: Uncovering Potential Risk Factors for Indigenous Families Touched by Violence

“…Relational risk factors tend to arise at the interpersonal level, whereas family‐level risk factors tend to affect the family as a whole. Relational risk factors for violence in families include (a) exposure to violence in families (e.g., IPV; Bassuk, Dawson, & Huntington, ; Few & Rosen, ; Margolin, Gordis, Medina, & Oliver, ; Masten & Monn, ; Tolan et al, ), (b) less affectionate and more adversarial parent–child relationships (Tailor, Stewart‐Tufescu, & Piotrowski, ), (c) alcohol use by either partner (Tolan et al, ), (d) parental conflict and discord (Masten & Monn, ; Tolan et al, ), (e) poor communication (Tolan et al, ), (f) poor social support (Bassuk et al, ; Tolan et al, ), (g) relationship dissatisfaction (Tolan et al, ); (h) low relationship skills, (i) relational stress, and (j) choosing a partner with a history of abuse (Tolan et al, ).…”

Knowledge Translation Plan to Diffuse, Disseminate and Apply Evidence on Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

“…Several studies using a person-centered approach have identified different profiles of adjustment among children and adolescents exposed to IPV, showing that between 15% and 60% of these population present profiles of resilience in absence of adjustment problems [33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. Across studies, the most significant and consistent factors discriminating between profiles of resilience and psychopathology in children exposed to IPV are maternal mental health, the quality of the mother-child relationship, and maternal parenting skills, together with socioeconomic status (SES) and maternal level of education [32,33,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48].…”