Trajectories of Risk in Early Psychosocial Development: Children of Mothers Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence from Refugee and Non-Refugee Backgrounds in a High-Income Country.

Abstract

Early childhood exposure to maternal experiences of intimate partner violence is associated with a range of emotional and behavioural problems. Using five timepoints of annually collected data from the WATCH mental health cohort study of 870 mother-child dyads, half from refugee background, we prospectively examined the impact of maternal perinatal intimate partner violence exposure on children’s risk trajectories of social-emotional development from around two to five years of age. Maternal IPV exposure to physical abuse with or without psychological abuse at baseline was independently associated with 2.45 times greater odds of children following the “intermittent risk” development trajectory, and 4.90 times greater odds of children following the “high increasing risk” trajectory, compared to those in the “none or low risk” group. Children in the “high increasing risk” trajectory were more likely to be male, and mothers were more likely to be born in Australia, have no tertiary education, and experience social difficulties. The study contributes significantly to understanding the deleterious impact of IPV on child development over time, and the risk and protective factors relevant for safeguarding women and ensuring the optimal development of children.