Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose:           Although a large body of research has documented a relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adulthood parenting, a dearth of studies exist identifying variables across the life course that mediate this relationship. This project assessed the extent to which domestic violence (DV) mediated the relationship between CSA and five dimensions of parenting (warmth, stress, psychological aggression, use of non-violent discipline, and use of corporal punishment) after accounting for the variation in these relationships explained by other forms of childhood and adulthood adversity. Methods:          The study is a secondary analysis of data from the Illinois Families Study Child Well-Being Supplement (IFS-CWB).  The Illinois Families Study (IFS) is a large scale, panel design study of families receiving Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) benefits in the post welfare reform era (n=1,363).  A stratified random sampling procedure was used to select 50% of the sample from Cook County (Chicago and the surrounding suburbs) with the remaining 50% selected from eight additional counties representing smaller urban and rural communities in the state. The IFS-CWB is a five year sub-study of the IFS that explored in greater detail the experiences of parents who had a child at least three years of age or younger at the time of the initial IFS interview (n=554).  The sample for the current study (n=483) included all biological or adoptive mothers who participated through Wave 2 IFS-CWB.  The majority of the sample (82.7%) was comprised of African American women. Baron and Kenny's (1986) model for establishing mediation was used to test the hypothesis that DV mediated the relationship between CSA and adulthood parenting. Results:             Two of the five parenting outcomes, psychological aggression and corporal punishment, were found to be significantly correlated with both CSA and DV, satisfying Baron and Kenny's first condition for mediation. Logistic regression analysis revealed that CSA significantly predicted DV, even after accounting for other forms of childhood adversity and socio-demographic controls (beta=1.43, standard error=.37, p=.00), thus confirming that Baron and Kenny's second condition for mediation was also met.  The final condition for Baron and Kenny's model of mediation is that the association between the independent variable and dependent variable must be reduced or eliminated after controlling for the hypothesized mediator.  Hierarchal multiple regression showed that DV significantly predicted both psychological aggression (standardized beta=.15, p=.00) and corporal punishment (standardized beta = .14, p=.00) after controlling for other childhood and adulthood co-variates; however, the impact of CSA on psychological aggression and corporal punishment was eliminated after controlling for DV, thus satisfying Baron and Kenny's final condition for mediation. Conclusions:     Findings from this study highlight the importance of using a life course perspective in understanding the long term impacts of child abuse on adulthood parenting.   Author discusses implications for the development of effective policies and social work interventions to promote healthy parenting practices.                          

 

Baron, R.M. & Kenny, D.A.  (1986).  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in

            social psychological research:  Conceptual, strategic, and statistical

            considerations.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.