Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: There is a high rate of co-occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and child abuse and neglect (CAN), with a median estimate of about 40%. However, the specific pathways that link these types of family violence are unknown. Maternal parenting stress, depression, alcohol use, and unwanted pregnancy are risk factors that have been associated with both IPV and CAN. Therefore, it is possible that any one or more of these factors may mediate the association between IPV and CAN. The purpose of this study is to examine potential mediating pathways that link mothers' reports of experiencing IPV, including both physical and psychological aggression, and self-reports of maternal CAN.

Methods: As described in the introductory abstract, data for this study were drawn from the FFCWS. Mothers who reported currently having a partner at the 3-year follow-up were included in these analyses (n=2,523). IPV physical aggression questions were taken from the Conflict Tactics Scale; psychological aggression questions were adapted from research by Sally Lloyd.1 Maternal perceived stress was assessed using the shortened version of the Parent Stress Inventory.2 CAN was assessed using the CTS-PC.3 The 3-year follow-up data was used to examine pathways between IPV and maternal CAN using structural equation models. Potential mediating effects of maternal stress, depression, alcohol use, and unwanted pregnancy were examined. Demographic variables linked with variation in risk for CAN were included in the final models.

Results: The model demonstrated a moderately good fit across all outcome variables. All RMSEA estimates were equal to or less than .05; all goodness of fit and misfit measures were between .87 - .93. SEM models indicated no direct pathway between IPV and CAN risk. There were significant direct pathways from parenting stress to IPV and risk for CAN (i.e., physical abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect). In addition, there is a direct pathway between alcohol abuse and all three types of CAN, and between unwanted pregnancy and psychological abuse.

Implications: Both maternal alcohol use and parenting stress are associated with CAN, however, only parenting stress is strongly associated with both IPV and CAN; maternal parenting stress does not appear to mediate the association between these two variables. In fact, these findings suggest that IPV and CAN are not directly linked but rather linked due to the presence of a common risk factor, such as maternal perceived parental stress. This suggests that interventions aimed at reducing parental stress may have implications for reducing both IPV and CAN.

1. Lloyd S. Physical aggression, distress, and everyday marital interaction. In: DD C, SA L, eds. Family violence from a communication perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1996:177-198. 2. Abidin RR. Parenting stress index (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.; 1995. 3. Straus MA, Hamby SL, Finkelhor D, Moore DW, Runyan D. Identification of child maltreatment with the parent-child conflict tactics scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. Child Abuse & Neglect. 1998/4 1998;22(4):249-270.