Impact of Complex Trauma and Depression on Parenting: An Exploration of Mediating Risk and Protective Factors

• NCJ Number: 202594
• Journal: Child Maltreatment Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2003 Pages: 334-349
• Author(s): Victoria L. Banyard; Linda M. Williams; Jane A. Siegel
• Date Published: November 2003
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 90-CA-1552; 90-CA-1406
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article discusses maternal depression as a mediator between mothers’ complex trauma exposure and parenting difficulties.

Abstract

This study builds on theoretical models of parenting and previous research on parenting outcomes among adults maltreated as children to examine both the potential mediating role of maternal depression in parenting difficulties and protective factors within a sample of adult survivors of childhood abuse. The intergenerational transmission framework focuses on learning and attachment models based on the estimate that about 30 percent of parents that experienced maltreatment in childhood go on to perpetrate abusive behaviors on their own children. The ecological framework involves viewing the factors that are present in the wider community and society in which the individual parents, such as poverty, unemployment, and cultural values that sanction violence and corporal punishment. It is hypothesized that exposure to physical and sexual abuse as well as witnessing violence in childhood would be linked to lower parenting satisfaction, higher rates of use of physical discipline, self-reported neglect, and reports of abuse. This would also be the case for exposure to adult physical and sexual abuse. Participants were a convenience subsample of 174 women from low-income neighborhoods in a large northeastern city that were part of a larger longitudinal study of the consequences of child sexual abuse. Measures included assessments of women’s own trauma history and parenting outcomes. The results showed that traumatic experiences in both childhood and adulthood were related to problems in parenting children. Both adult sexual and physical abuse were related to more negative parenting outcomes both in terms of self-reported parenting behaviors and perceptions of oneself as a parent. Maternal depression mediated the relationship between overall trauma exposure and parenting satisfaction, but trauma exerted direct effects for the outcomes of physical punishment, neglectful behaviors, and protective service reports. Connections to social supports and taking care of one’s own needs were protective factors among the subsample that had experienced traumatic events in childhood and adulthood. 1 figure, 6 tables, 71 references