How Do Survivors of Child Maltreatment Perceive Parenting Experiences? a Study of Mothers in Wisconsin

Background

The effects of child maltreatment on wellbeing throughout the life course have been well documented (i.e., lower education and SES, poor mental health; Karatzias et al., 2014; Tanaka et al., 2015), and adult survivors have been found to struggle with low self-esteem and creating healthy, secure relationships (Canton-Cortes, Cortes, & Canton, 2015). The inability to generate safe attachments can affect survivors’ social networks and familial relationships (Briere, Godbout, & Runtz, 2011). Specifically, it could be harmful to the mother-infant attachment bond (Seltmann & Wright, 2013). Moreover, distinct types of child maltreatment (e.g., physical, sexual, emotional) have been associated with differing outcomes (Bernstein et al., 2013), so it is important to understand how various types of maltreatment may differentially affect the parenting of survivors. Additionally, due to the cycle of violence and revictimization in survivors of abuse (Messman & Long, 1996), intimate partner violence (IPV) could be a potential mediator of this association. Other important mechanisms to consider are social support and stress due to the potential mitigating or exacerbating effects these variables may have on the long-term impact of child maltreatment.

Purpose

This study will examine associations between mothers’ experiences of child maltreatment and their assessments of their own parenting and relationships with their children. Child abuse is measured through physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect. Parenting outcomes are measured using parental competency, quality of attachment, and perceived level of rejection from the infant. The potential mediating role of IPV, stress, and social support will also be investigated. 

Methods

This data was collected from a sample of 129 low-income mothers participating in a home-visiting pilot program in Wisconsin. We used OLS regression models to test the associations between the predictors and parenting outcomes. Sobel-Goodman mediation tests were also utilized to test the significance of indirect effects through the hypothesized mediators. 

Important Findings

The regression results suggest that experiences of neglect may have a greater impact on parenting perceptions than experiences of abuse. Experiencing physical neglect during childhood was associated with less parental competency, and experiencing emotional neglect was associated with a greater sense of rejection by the infant. Experiencing abuse was not associated with self-assessed parenting. The association between physical neglect and perceived parental competency was significantly mediated by stress using a Sobel-Goodman mediation test.

Overall, these findings give implications for treatments and interventions that emphasize understanding a mother’s childhood neglect history and using that to inform focused areas of support, whether it be working to bolster feelings of competency or helping to mitigate potential rejection from the infant. Moreover, the results suggest stress may have an important role in impacting the parenting outcomes of child maltreatment survivors. Thus, creating programs and interventions that address stress and coping techniques could be particularly helpful for improving the parenting experience of mothers with a history of abuse.