Examining Profiles of Risk, Protection, and Resilience Among Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Using Latent Profile Analysis

Background: Despite evidence of heterogeneity in adjustment among children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV), little research has been directed at understanding the manner in which protective and risk factors operate in concert to influence children's risk and resilience in the context of this adversity.  Research demonstrates that domains of developmental competence serve as important and malleable internal protective factors that contribute to children’s overall resilience and buffer the negative effects of stressful family environments. The goal of the current study was to address gaps in the literature by examining patterns of children’s social competence, academic competence, and extracurricular competence in relationship to exposure to IPV.

Method: Women with children between the ages of 7 and 12 years were recruited from one of 22 domestic violence agencies in a western U.S. state. The sample of children was gender-balanced with a mean age of 9.07 (SD=1.64) and identified racially/ethnically as follows: 55.3% Latino or Hispanic, 22% White, 17.9% more than 1 race, 3.4% African American or Black, 1.0% American Indian, and 0.3% Asian. Latent profile analysis was conducted in Mplus 7.1 and used to identify subgroups of children who differed in patterns of competence and exposure to IPV. Associations of child-, maternal-, and family-level covariates with the latent profiles were examined using the modified three-step multinomial logistic regression procedure in Mplus. Mean differences in total behavior problems scores between the profiles were examined using analysis of variance with a Scheffé post-hoc test.

Results: Fit indices (i.e., AIC, BIC, adjusted BIC, LMRT, BLRT) resulting from the latent profile models containing 1 through 6 classes indicated that the 5-profile model was the optimal solution. The profiles were characterized as follows:  Frequent Exposure with Activities Risk (38%; n=111), Low Exposure with Overall Risk (7% n=18), Frequent Exposure with Average Global Competence (31% n=90), Low Exposure with School Risk (11%; n=90), and Frequent Exposure with High Global Competence (13%; n=31).  Results of the multinomial logistic regression identified unique predictors that significantly distinguished between the profiles (i.e., yearly household income, maternal education, number of children in the household, child’s relationship to the abusive partner). In addition, results of the one-way ANOVA identified statistically significant mean differences in total behavior problems between the profiles.

Conclusions: Results of this study indicated that the majority (44%) of children in a community-based sample of children exposed to IPV were characterized by average to above average levels of competence in academic, social, and extracurricular domains while experiencing frequent exposure to IPV. Furthermore, children with these profiles of resilience, on average, demonstrated normative levels of behavior problems. Non-biological children of abusive partners living in large blended families may be at particular risk for compromised competence and behavior problems, even in the presence of low levels of IPV exposure. We discuss implications for future research and argue that developing and evaluating programs that examine multiple domains of competence over time is an important next step for intervention research with children exposed to family violence.