Parenting in battered women: The effects of domestic violence on women and their children.

Abstract

Prior research on domestic violence documents the devastating negative effects of violence on women and children. However, the protective and risk factors for children's adjustment largely have been ignored. This study integrates a developmental psychopathology model and trauma theory in proposing a model of the effects of domestic violence on women's parenting and children's adjustment. One hundred and twenty women and children between the ages of 7 and 12 participated in this study. Subjects were recruited from domestic violence shelters, community programs, food stamp offices, and through advertisements in newspapers, and posters in grocery stores. The frequency and chronicity of psychological and physical abuse varied widely in these families. Fifty percent were minority families. The women and children completed questionnaires tapping violence, parenting qualities, psychological functioning, marital satisfaction, life events, social support, child abuse, and children's adjustment. Teachers also completed questionnaires about the children's adjustment at school. Results supported a sequential influence model of the impact of domestic violence on women and children. The model predicted 41% of children's adjustment, 9% of parenting, 44% of maternal psychological functioning, and 23% of marital satisfaction. Domestic violence was directly related to maternal psychological functioning and marital satisfaction. Social support, negative life events, and maternal history of child abuse were related to maternal psychological functioning. Maternal psychological functioning and marital satisfaction mediated the relationship between domestic violence and parenting. Children's adjustment was predicted by child abuse, parenting, and maternal psychological functioning. Goodness-of-fit tests revealed that the data adequately fit the model. Overall the results support the developmental psychopathology framework and trauma theory in understanding the effects of domestic violence on women and children. Rather than focusing on internal pathology, behavior is seen to exist on a continuum influenced heavily by the context in which the person is developing. Previous studies which merely compare battered women with nonbattered women miss the richness and complexity of the context.