Session: Title: Parenting Support for Mothers with High Exposure to Violence: Socio-Ecological Contexts Can Promote or Hinder Nurturing, Non-Violent Parenting (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

Nurturing, non-violent parenting is essential for healthy child development. Conversely, the more that children experience parenting, and other socio-ecological contexts, that feel unsafe (i.e., adverse childhood experiences (ACES) such as child abuse), the higher the risk to their health and well-being throughout the lifespan. Hence, identifying ways to support parents in context can benefit parents, their children, and the broader community.

This symposium will address such issues by presenting findings from the "Longitudinal follow-up of brief parenting interventions to reduce risk of child physical maltreatment in a selected population" study (MPIs: Taylor & Fleckman) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This project was initiated in collaboration with the New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) to provide greater parenting support to mothers, promote child well-being, and prevent child abuse. NOHD chose WIC clinics for the study and intervention sites. Data were collected from 2014 to 2022 at baseline (n=823), 3-month follow-up (n=741), and 4+ years follow-up (n=446). Herein we report findings from quantitative analyses that elucidate factors that can support or hinder parents' ability to provide safe and nurturing parenting.

Paper 1 leveraged both the randomized controlled trial and longitudinal study design to examine the short and long-term main effects of two brief parenting interventions (Play Nicely and Brief Primary Care Triple P) on: positive parenting (e.g., positive reinforcement), coercive parenting, corporal punishment (CP) (i.e., spanking), attitudes supportive of spanking, and child behavioral health. This study fills an important gap in understanding how brief interventions may be a feasible mechanism for providing foundational information to parents about healthy child discipline practices.

Paper 2 examined the impact of maternal ACES on parenting outcomes (same as those in paper 1) and addressed limitations of prior work by using expanded ACES measures, a longitudinal design, and testing moderation effects within a predominantly non-White study population. Findings suggest a need to consider the interaction effects between ACES and depression on maternal parenting and efforts to promote child well-being.

Paper 3 focused on the associations of parenting outcomes (same as those assessed above) with some understudied socio-ecological contexts: neighborhood collective efficacy (NCE) and perceived support for use of CP. Findings suggest that, although NCE is normally protective for parenting, perceived support for CP interacts with NCE to create a less supportive parenting environment.

Paper 4 examined how perceived social support moderates the relationship between mothers' past and current exposure to community violence (ECV) and parental stress and/or emotional adjustment. Findings suggest the importance of social support for mothers' emotional adjustment to parenting in the face of recent ECV.

The discussant will consider the contributions of these studies to our understanding of factors that can hinder or support parents in providing safe and nurturing environments for their children. Clinical and policy implications, as well as future study directions, will be discussed.