NCJ Number
209516
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 19 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2004 Pages: 377-385
Date Published
December 2004
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined the link between childhood exposure to parental violence and the child's subsequent adult psychological functioning in a sample of predominantly Mexican-American women.
Abstract
Questionnaires were administered to 142 female undergraduates recruited from psychology classes at a private, nearly all-female university in south central Texas. The child Maltreatment Interview Schedule-Short Form assessed several areas of childhood experiences, including domestic violence, parental substance abuse, parental physical and psychological availability, psychological abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and perceptions of abuse status. The Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 assessed symptomatology that stemmed from childhood or adult traumatic experiences. Other instruments measured the cognitive, affective, psychomotor, somatic, and social-interpersonal symptoms of depression; self-esteem; and interpersonal relationships among family members, directions of personal growth emphasized by the family, and the basic organizational structure of the family. The findings show that witnessing parental violence in childhood was linked with depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, and trauma symptoms in adulthood, even after controlling for childhood physical and sexual abuse; however, in subsequent analyses that also controlled for levels of nonphysical family conflict, previous associations between exposure to parental violence and adult symptomatology were reduced, so that trauma-related symptoms remained the only outcome still predicted from witnessing parental violence. Study limitations and future research are discussed. 4 tables and 50 references