Internalizing and externalizing symptoms in young children exposed to intimate partner violence: Examining intervening processes.

Abstract

Children’s emotion dysregulation, children’s appraisals, maternal psychological functioning, and harsh discipline were investigated as potential mediators in the putative link between exposure to intimate partner violence and poor child outcomes. Participants included 132 children ages 6–8 and their mothers who had been enrolled in a longitudinal study of parenting and children’s social development. The mothers were receiving some form of government-based economic assistance or other social services, and were currently involved in a romantic relationship. Results of structural equation modeling indicated children’s emotion dysregulation mediated the links between exposure to IPV and both internalizing and externalizing problems. Harsh discipline mediated the link between exposure to IPV and externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms. Child appraisals and maternal psychological functioning mediated the link between exposure to IPV and internalizing, but not externalizing, symptoms.

How Can We End the Stigma Surrounding Domestic and Sexual Violence? A Modified Delphi Study with National Advocacy Leaders

“…Some panel members focused especially on ensuring that all children are able to grow up in safe, non-violent homes, where they have models of healthy relationships from the adults in their lives. This is consistent with research demonstrating the potential lasting negative effects of childhood exposure to family violence (Zarling et al 2013).…”

“…For example, compared with women with no history of domestic or sexual violence, women with these experiences are at an increased risk for physical, emotional, and psychological symptomology (Laffaye et al 2003; World Health Organization); increased fear, concern for physical safety, and PTSD symptoms (Black et al); and greater absenteeism at work (Black et al;Chrisler and Ferguson 2006;Kaur and Garg 2008). Children who are exposed to domestic and/or sexual violence are at an increased risk of emotion dysregulation, externalizing and aggressive behavior, anxiety, and depression (Zarling et al 2013). Children can also be directly affected by the way in which domestic and sexual violence affects parenting practices, as seen in Murray et al (2012) study revealing a correlation between a mother's experience of domestic or sexual violence and an increase in the use of physical means of punishment and a decrease in parental involvement.…”

Parenting in the Wake of Abuse: Exploring the Mediating Role of PTSD Symptoms on the Relationship Between Parenting and Child Functioning

“…These findings are consistent with the evidence for a disorder-specific intergenerational transmission of PTSD (Starr, Conway, Hammen, & Brennan, 2014). They support findings by others that maternal distress/psychological function mediates the relationship between partner violence and child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Owen, Thompson, & Kaslow, 2006;Zarling et al, 2013). In addition to genetics, shared exposure to trauma and stressful life situations including poverty and chaotic environments, parenting behaviors related to PTSD symptoms may help explain the relationship between maternal PTSD and child outcomes.…”

Children's exposure to intimate partner violence: A meta-analysis of longitudinal associations with child adjustment problems

“…Specifically, most studies on children's exposure to IPV conceptualize IPV as acts of physical aggression (Evans et al, 2008;Kitzmann et al, 2003). However, some researchers have begun to broaden the conceptualization of IPV to also include acts of psychological and/or sexual IPV (e.g., Huang, Wang, & Warrener, 2010;Jouriles, McDonald, Vu, & Sargent, 2015;Jouriles, Norwood, McDonald, Vincent, & Mahoney, 1996;Schnurr & Lohman, 2013;Zarling et al, 2013). Theoretically, a broader conceptualization of IPV may allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the negative impact of exposure to IPV on children.…”