ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Mothers’Parenting Practices for Urban, Low-Income Adolescents

Kantahyanee W. Murray & Megan H. Bair-Merritt &Kathleen Roche & Tina L. Cheng

Published online: 16 June 2012# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Abstract This study examined whether depression and so-cial support mediated the relationship between intimatepartner violence (IPV) and parenting practices. Participantswere 1,057 female primary caregiver-young adolescentpairs. (Sample included greater than 90 % biological moth-ers; hereafter, female primary caregivers are referred to asmother.) Findings indicated that IPV was associated posi-tively with mothers’ use of physical punishment and nega-tively with mothers’ involvement in their children’seducation. Although depression and social support werenot found to mediate the relationship between IPV andparenting practices, study findings suggest that IPV directlyand negatively impacted mothers’ parenting practices. Insum, findings point to the important role that IPV may playin explaining parenting practices for mothers living in high-risk urban environments.

Keywords Intimate partner violence . Parenting .

Depression . Social support

The pernicious effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) onwomen’s mental and physical health have been well

documented (Campbell 2002; Plichta 2004). A growingbody of research has shown that IPV affects mothers’ par-enting behaviors and parent–child relationships. In studiesof young children, findings with respect to the effects of IPVon parenting are conflicting. For example, some researchhas shown that IPV is associated with less effective parent-ing of young children (Levendosky and Graham-Bermann2000, 2001; Levendosky et al. 2006), whereas, other re-search has suggested that mothers with young childrencompensate for IPV’s harmful impact by engaging in morepositive parenting (Casanueva et al. 2008; Letourneau et al.2007; Levendosky et al. 2003; Sullivan et al. 2001). Scantempirical evidence exists for understanding potential mech-anisms through which IPV may influence parenting andparent–child relationships. In the current study, we examinewhether maternal depression and social support among fe-male primary caregivers account for associations betweenIPV and parenting of an adolescent. Our examination of thelinks between IPV and parenting focuses on a particularlyvulnerable population—families living in economically dis-advantaged urban neighborhoods. We also focus on parent-ing of adolescents, a developmental period that has not beenwidely examined in studies of IPV and parenting.

IPV, Depression, and Parenting

Depression may play a role in explaining how mothers’ IPVexperiences affect parenting behaviors and parent–childrelationships (Renner 2009). Depression is one of the mostcommon adverse health outcomes among women who haveexperienced IPV, and IPV may exacerbate chronic depres-sion (Campbell 2002). A large body of research has revealedthe negative impacts of depression on parenting (Goodman2007; Lovejoy et al. 2000). Few researchers, however, have

K. W. Murray (*)Ruth H. Young Center for Families and Children,School of Social Work, University of Maryland Baltimore,525 West Redwood Street,Baltimore, MD 21201, USAe-mail: kmurray@ssw.umaryland.edu

M. H. Bair-Merritt : T. L. ChengSchool of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University,Baltimore, MD, USA

K. RocheDepartment of Sociology, Georgia State University,Atlanta, GA, USA

J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583DOI 10.1007/s10896-012-9449-x

examined the role of depression in explaining associationsbetween IPV and parenting. In a sample of low-incomewomen, Renner (2009) found that depression partially me-diated the relationship between mothers’ psychological IPVand self-reported parenting stress. Findings suggested thatdepression accounts for why psychological IPV rendersthese mothers less able to handle their parenting demands.Other studies have examined whether IPV exerts its influ-ence on parenting indirectly through maternal psychologicalfunctioning, a composite variable that included a measure ofdepression. Among a sample of mothers with preschoolchildren, Levendosky et al. (2003) found that poor maternalpsychological functioning mediated the association betweenIPV victimization and parenting effectiveness. These find-ings suggested that compromised psychological functioningplays a role in rendering these mothers less emotionallyavailable and involved with their children. Two additionalstudies by Levendosky and colleagues found a significantrelationship between IPVand maternal emotional health, butmore marginal associations between maternal psychologicalfunctioning and parenting practices (Levendosky et al.2006; Levendosky and Graham-Bermann 2001).

Two of the prior studies examining the mediating role ofdepression in the relationship between IPV and parentingincluded mothers of adolescents (Levendosky and Graham-Bermann 2001; Renner 2009). However, findings specific tothe parenting of the adolescents in these studies were notpresented. This gap in the literature presents an opportunityto further understand the potential mediating role of depres-sion with a focus on mothers of adolescents.

IPV, Social Support, and Parenting

Numerous studies have underscored the role of social sup-port as a source of coping that improves well-being forwomen experiencing IPV (e.g., Beeble et al. 2009; Bybeeand Sullivan 2002; Coker et al. 2002; Levendosky andGraham-Bermann 2001; Levendosky et al. 2003; Levendoskyet al. 2006). For example, Levendosky and colleagues foundthat social support was associated with less negative psycho-logical functioning including depression (and lack of socialsupport increased levels of poor psychological functioning)for women who experienced IPV (Levendosky and Graham-Bermann 2001; Levendosky et al. 2003; Levendosky et al.2006). Another line of research has focused on how IPVserves to diminish a mother’s social support. Scholars havesuggested various ways that IPV negatively impacts socialsupport (see Levendosky et al. 2004, for a review). Feelings ofshame about being in a violent relationshipmaymakemothersmore hesitant about disclosing abuse and appealing to familyand friends for support (El-Bassel et al. 2001). Mothers inviolent relationships may tend to socialize with other women

at risk for IPVor in violent relationships themselves. IPV maybe perceived as normal, and network members may lack thewherewithal to offer emotional or instrumental support to oneanother (Levendosky et al. 2004). An additional potentialbarrier to social support is the perpetrator’s own actions toisolate the mother from her network of support (Dobash andDobash 1998).

Absent from the extant literature is an exploration ofwhether diminished social support accounts for the relation-ship between IPV and parenting. This research gap repre-sents an important area for additional research, particularlygiven evidence that social support is related to effectiveparenting (Taylor 1996; Taylor et al. 2008). For example,Taylor and colleagues (2008) found that kin social supportwas positively related to the presence of family routinesamong urban, low-income African American mothers, whilelack of social support was associated with parent-adolescentcommunication problems. By focusing on how social sup-port explains links between IPV and parenting, the currentstudy extends previous research that has demonstrated thatsocial support fully or partially mediates the relationshipbetween IPV and measures of well-being (Beeble et al.2009; McConnell et al. 2011).

Current Study

The current study aim was to examine the potential mediat-ing roles of depression and social support in the relationshipbetween maternal IPVand parenting practices among femaleprimary caregivers. We will use the term mothers whenreferring to the female primary caregivers in this study.Controlling for Time 1 parenting, mothers’ reports of de-pression were expected to mediate the association betweenIPV and parenting at Time 2. Similarly, mothers’ reports ofsocial support were expected to mediate the association ofIPV and parenting.

The degree to which maternal depression and socialsupport mediate the relationship between IPV and parentingis particularly important to examine in relationship to moth-ers of adolescent children. Adolescence is a time of tremen-dous transition for children marked by biological, cognitive,and social changes including the onset of puberty, identityformation, and attending middle and high school (Paikoffand Brooks-Gunn 1991; Steinberg and Morris 2001). Con-sequently, parents face unique challenges at this develop-mental stage. Adolescents spend increasing amounts of timewith friends and peers, and they may aspire to conform topeer values and behavioral norms that conflict with parentsocialization goals (Hill et al. 2007; Paikoff and Brooks-Gunn 1991). In addition, adolescents and parents may dis-agree about the amount of autonomy granted to the adoles-cent. Thus, the number and intensity of conflicts between

574 J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583

parents and their adolescents may increase (Allison andSchultz 2004; Hill et al. 2007; Paikoff and Brooks-Gunn1991) as autonomy is negotiated. By focusing on the par-enting of adolescents among mothers who have lowincomes and live in urban communities, the current studybuilds on previous research of parenting and IPV which haslargely focused on parenting of young children.

Method

Participants

Participants were drawn from Welfare, Children, and Fam-ilies: A Three-City Study (Angel et al. 2009), a study of low-income families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonioneighborhoods. The Three-City Study is an investigationof the social and economic well-being of low-income urbanfamilies. Using a multi-stage, stratified area probabilitysampling of dwelling units, families were recruited fromcensus blocks with at least 20 % of residents living belowthe federal poverty line (based on the 1990 census). Eligiblehouseholds included female- or couple-headed householdswith incomes below 200 % of the federal poverty line.Consent was obtained from adult female caregiver respond-ents and adolescents who were fully informed about thestudy.

Participants responded to in-home interviews in threewaves: (a) 1999 (Time 1 or T1); (b) 2000/2001 (Time 2 orT2); and (c) 2005/2006 (Time 3 or T3). Automated comput-er assisted survey interviews (ACASI) were conducted forsensitive questions. Spanish-language surveys were admin-istered for respondents not completely comfortable withEnglish. A detailed description of the study design andmethods was documented in a previous report (Winston1999).

In the present study, inclusion criteria included dyads offemale caregivers and youth ages 10–14 years who partici-pated in the first two waves (T1 and T2) of the Three-CityStudy (n01,147). Cases in which the female caregiver re-spondent was 18 years or younger (n01), and cases in whichthe youth lived with his/her mother but another femalecaregiver participated in the study (n04) were excluded.Of the 1,142 female-child pairs who met this initial studycriteria, female caregiver-adolescent pairs were excluded ifthe child had a different caregiver at T2 (n015) or if it wasunknown whether the child had the same caregiver due tomissing data at T2 (n070). Thus, female caregiver-adolescent pairs who reported having the same female care-giver at both T1 and T2 were included in the study sample(N01,057). Because nearly all of the female caregivers werebiological mothers (91 %), we refer to the female caregiversin this study as mothers.

Among the 1,057 youth, the sample was roughlyequivalent by gender. Most youth were Latino (48 %)or African American (42 %). Ten percent of youth wereWhite, non-Hispanic. The majority of youth (68 %) livedwith a biological or adoptive mother only. Other house-hold structures included biological or adoptive motherand other adult (i.e., father/stepfather/mother’s partner orother kin; 24%), and other kin or nonbiological caregiver (i.e.,no biological/adoptive mother; 8 %). The average income-to-needs ratio was 0.73 indicating that on average, the low-income participants in this sample had needs that exceededtheir income.

Measures - Independent and Mediating Variables

Maternal IPV At T1, mothers completed nine questionsbased on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2; Strausset al. 1996) assessing the extent to which they experiencedIPV during the last 12 months. Respondents were asked toindicate how often in the past 12 months a romantic partnerhad threatened to hit them, use a weapon on them, and eitherhurt their child or take their child away. Respondents werealso asked to indicate how often in the past 12 months aromantic partner had thrown something at them; pushed,grabbed, or shoved them; slapped, kicked, bit, or punchedthem; beaten them; choked or burned them; and forced theminto any sexual activity against their will. A dichotomousvariable was created to indicate whether the mother experi-enced one or more of these forms of IPV in the last12 months.

Maternal Depression At T1, maternal depression wasassessed using a six-item version of the Brief SymptomInventory (BSI-18; Derogatis 2000). Mothers wereasked to report how much they were distressed orbothered by feeling no interest in things, feeling lonely,feeling blue, feelings of worthlessness, feeling hopelessabout the future, and thoughts of ending their life. Thesubscale has a five-point response scale ranging from 1(not at all) to 5 (extremely). Subscale scores werecreated by taking the mean of the six items, withhigher scores reflecting greater depressive symptoms(α0 .85).

Maternal Social Support At T1, maternal social supportwas assessed using an adapted measure of social supportby Orthner and Neenan (1996). Mothers indicated the extentto which they had people in their life they could count on tolisten to their problems when they were feeling low, takecare of their children when they were not around, help themwith small favors, and loan them money in case of anemergency. Response categories included 1 (enough to relyon), 2 (too few to rely on), and 3 (no one to rely on). Items

J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583 575

were reverse coded so that higher scores reflect greatersocial support. Scale scores were created by taking the meanof the four items (α0 .81).

Measures – Dependent Variables

Mother-Child Relationship Quality Mother-child relation-ship quality was measured using the Inventory of Parentand Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden and Greenberg 1987),which was adapted for the Three-City Study. Twelve itemsassessed youths’ perceptions of the affective/cognitivedimensions of relationships with their mother. Both negativeand positive dimensions were assessed. Data collected atboth T1 and T2 were used in this study. Youth indicated howtrue the following statements were for them: “My motheraccepts me as I am,” “I like to get my mother’s point of viewon things I’m concerned about,” “Talking over my problemswith my mother makes me feel ashamed or foolish,” “Mymother expects too much from me,” “I get upset a lot morethan my mother knows about,” “When we discuss things,my mother cares about my point of view,” “My mother hasher own problems, so I don’t bother her with mine,” “I tellmy mother about my problems and troubles,” “I feel angrywith my mother,” “I get a lot of attention from my mother,”“I trust my mother,” and “My mother doesn’t understandwhat I’m going through these days.” Response categorieswere coded 1 (never true), 2 (rarely true), 3 (sometimestrue), 4 (often true), and 5 (always true). Negatively wordeditems were reverse coded so that higher scale scores reflectgreater mother-child relationship quality. Scale scores werecreated by taking the mean of the 12 items (α0 .72, T1;α0 .81, T2).

Maternal Involvement Maternal involvement in schoolingwas assessed using a three-item measure developed by theThree-City Study principal investigators (Winston 1999).Data collected at both T1 and T2 were used in this study.Youth reported their perceptions of how often during thepast 12 months their mother checked homework or madesure homework had been done; talked to the child aboutwhat the youth was learning in school or how the youth didon a test; and helped with homework or studying. Responsecategories included 1 (never), 2 (a few times), 3 (once amonth or more), 4 (once a week or more), and 5 (almostevery day). Scale scores were created by computing themean of the three items, with higher scores reflecting greatermaternal involvement (α0 .74, T1; α0 .79, T2).

Maternal Knowledge Parental knowledge (Brown et al.1993) was measured using five items that asked youthhow much their mother knew about who the youth’s friendsare, where the youth is most afternoons after school, wherethe youth goes at night, what the youth does with his/her

money, and how the youth spends his/her money. Datacollected at both T1 and T2 were used in this study. Responsecategories included 1 (doesn’t know), 2 (knows a little), and 3(knows a lot). Scale scores were created by computing themean of the five items, with higher scores reflecting greaterparental knowledge (α0 .70, T1; α0 .75, T2).

Punitive Discipline Physical punishment was assessedusing a measure developed by the Three-City Studyprincipal investigators (Winston 1999). Mothers an-swered two questions regarding their attitude about anduse of physical punishment. Mothers were asked toindicate how true it is that a good spanking is some-times needed and that they spank their child if he/she asdone something really wrong. Data collected at both T1and T2 were used in this study. Response optionsranged from 1 (definitely true) to 4 (definitely false).These items were averaged to compute a scale score, withhigher scores reflecting lower levels of physical punishment(α0 .78, T1; α0 .76, T2).

Family Routines Family routines were measured at T1 andT2 using the Family Routines Inventory (FRI; Jensen et al.1983) adapted for the Three-City Study. Mothers were askedto indicate whether different practices were done regularlyin their family. Five items assessed the extent to which thefamily has a time during the day when the family talks orplays together, has dinner at the same time of day or night,has breakfast together in the morning, has the children go tobed at the same time every night, and has the children dotheir homework at the same time of day or night. Responsecategories ranged from 1 (almost never) to 4 (always). Scalescores were created by computing the mean of the fiveitems, with higher scores reflecting greater levels of familyroutines (α0 .67, T1; α0 .66, T2).

Measures – Covariates

Demographic Variables Child and female caregiver ques-tionnaire items assessed demographic factors includingchild’s race/ethnicity (Latino, African American, White,or Other), child’s age, mother’s age, mother’s highestlevel of education achieved (high school degree/less thana high school degree or more than a high school de-gree), household structure (biological/adoptive motheronly, biological/adoptive mother and other adult, i.e.,father/stepfather/mother’s partner or other kin, or nobiological/adoptive mother), and household income-to-needs ratio. The income-to-needs ratio is a ratio of incometo the poverty threshold with values less than 1 indicatingpoverty and greater than 1 indicating near poverty levels.Income-to-needs ratios near or equal to 2 demonstrate thatfamily earnings are double the federal poverty threshold.

576 J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583

The variables child’s race/ethnicity and household structurewere categorical. Mother’s education was dichotomous,and child’s age, mother’s age, and the income-to-needsratio were continuous variables.

Analytic Strategy

Stata 11.0 (StataCorp 2009) was used to conduct allanalyses. Multiple imputation (MI) was used to handlemissing data. MI provides the advantage of yieldingmore precise estimates of statistical parameters (e.g., betacoefficients) and their variance when compared to com-plete case analysis or data sets with missing valuesimputed one time (Schafer 1999). Prior to performingMI, the data were evaluated to ensure that missing valueswere missing at random (MAR) rather than systematical-ly missing (Allison 2002). Next, the level of missing datawas inspected to ensure that less than 15 % data weremissing across scale scores. The assumption of MARwas met, and the rate of missing data across scales or indices(5–10 %) was acceptable. Twenty multiply imputed data setswere generated.

We explored the distribution of all study variables. Be-cause of the non-normal distribution, the following variableswere log transformed: (a) depression, (b) social support, (c)parent–child relationship quality, (d) maternal involvement,(e) knowledge, (f) physical punishment, and (g) familyroutines. We assessed bivariate associations between mater-nal IPV and the parenting dependent variables using t-tests.Spearman correlations were used to assess the bivariateassociations between maternal depression, maternal socialsupport, and the parenting variables. Multiple linear regres-sion models assessed the main effects of T1 maternal IPVonT2 parenting controlling for T1 parenting, T1 depression,T1 social support, mother’s age, child’s age, child’s race/ethnicity, household structure, mother’s education, andhousehold income; separate regression models were usedfor each parenting variable.

To test our study hypothesis that depression accountedfor the association between maternal IPV and parenting,we tested models of mediation when the following crite-ria were met: (a) T1 maternal IPV was significantlycorrelated with the parenting variable (i.e., parent–childrelationship quality, involvement, knowledge, physicalpunishment, and family routines); (b) maternal IPV wassignificantly correlated with depression; and (c) depres-sion was significantly correlated with the parenting vari-able. Similarly, to test our study hypothesis that socialsupport accounted for the association between maternalIPV and parenting, we tested models of mediation whenthe following criteria were met: (a) maternal IPV wassignificantly correlated with the parenting variable (i.e.,parent–child relationship quality, involvement, knowledge,

physical punishment, and family routines); (b) maternalIPV was significantly correlated with social support; and(c) social support was significantly correlated with theparenting variable. When these three criteria were met forany of the parenting variables, potential mediation wastested using the Sobel test (Baron and Kenny 1986).

Results

The independent and dependent variables including therange, mean, standard deviations, and Cronbach’s alphasare shown in Table 1. Twenty-five percent (n0262) ofmothers in the sample reported IPV in the last 12 months.The descriptive and demographic characteristics by IPVstatus are shown in Table 2.

Bivariable Relationships Among Variables

Mothers who reported past-year IPV had higher levels ofdepression (t0−4.68, p<.000) and lower levels of socialsupport (t02.22, p<.05) compared to mothers who reportedno IPV. Mothers who reported IPV also reported greaterlevels of physical punishment parenting strategies, asreflected by lower scores on this scale (t04.34, p<.000),and their adolescents perceived lower levels of family rou-tines (t02.12, p<.05). As shown in Table 3, Pearson corre-lations revealed that T1 depression was associated withlower levels of T2 parent–child relationship quality, mater-nal knowledge, and family routines. T1 depression wasunrelated to the remaining T2 parenting variables (maternalinvolvement, maternal knowledge, and physical punish-ment). T1 social support was not correlated with any ofthe parenting practice variables.

The Mediating Role of Depression and Social Support

As shown in Table 4, mothers’ IPV victimization (β0−.10,p<.05) was associated with later declines in maternal involve-ment. Mothers’ IPV victimization (β0−.12, p<.01) also wascorrelated with greater use and endorsement of physical pun-ishment parenting strategies, as reflected by lower scores onthis scale (harsh physical punishment was reverse coded suchthat high levels reflected lower levels of physical punishment).Mothers’ IPV victimization was not associated with theremaining parenting practices (data not shown). Althoughsocial support was unrelated to parenting practices across allmodels, maternal depression (β0−.12, p<.01) was associatedwith family routines.

Given that IPV was significantly associated with ma-ternal involvement and physical punishment, the potentialmediating role of depression in the relationship betweenIPV and parenting (i.e., maternal involvement and physical

J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583 577

punishment) was further explored. First, controlling for T1maternal involvement, T1 social support, and the demo-graphic variables, the association between IPV and T1depression was tested. Next, controlling for T1 physicalpunishment, T1 social support, and the demographicvariables, the association between IPV and T1 depres-sion was tested. IPV was associated with higher levelsof depression for the maternal involvement model, ad-justed R20 .18, F(9, 1048)010.65, p>001. IPV was alsoassociated with higher levels of depression for the phys-ical punishment model, adjusted R20 .18, F(9, 1048)010.41, p>.001. Next, the association between T1 de-pression and T2 parenting was examined for both ma-ternal involvement and physical punishment. Depressionwas not significantly related to either parenting variable.Therefore, further tests of mediation were not conducted.Using the same procedures described for depression, maternalIPV was found to be unrelated to social support, and socialsupport was also unrelated to any of the parenting variables.Further tests of mediation were not warranted for socialsupport.

Discussion

This study examined the potential mediating role of bothmaternal depression and mothers’ perceived social supporton the relationship between maternal IPV and parentingpractices. Findings indicated that mothers’ report of IPV inthe last 12 months predicted some but not all of parentingpractices 1 year later. More specifically, experiencing IPVwas associated with increases in mothers’ endorsement anduse of punitive discipline and with declines in mothers’involvement in their young adolescents’ education. Al-though IPV was associated with higher levels of depression,depression and social support did not mediate the relation-ship between maternal IPV and physical punishment ormaternal IPV and mothers’ involvement in their youngadolescents’ education. These findings provide further sup-port for the notion that maternal IPV may exert its influenceon parenting directly (Casanueva et al. 2008; Levendosky etal. 2006). In contrast to the current study, some previousstudies have shown that associations between IPVand parent-ing were mediated by maternal mental health (Levendoskyand Graham-Bermann 2001; Levendosky et al. 2003; Renner2009).

One explanation for why depression was not a medi-ator in the current study is that depression may be linkedthrough an alternate pathway. For example, there is rea-son to believe that compromised maternal psychologicalfunctioning, such as depression, may actually precedemothers’ experiences of intimate partner conflict, partic-ularly among women strained by economic hardshipT

able

1Means

andstandard

deviations

ofcontinuo

usdepend

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entvariablesby

intim

atepartnerviolence

(N01,05

7)

Variable

NoIPVrepo

rted

last12

mon

ths(n078

9)IPVrepo

rted

last12

mon

ths(n026

2)

Tim

e1

Tim

e2

Tim

e1

Tim

e2

Range

MSD

Alpha

Range

MSD

Alpha

Range

MSD

Alpha

Range

MSD

Alpha

Maternaldepression

1–4.17

1.44

0.61

0.82

1–5

1.44

0.63

0.86

1–4.67

1.79

0.86

0.87

1–5

1.67

0.82

0.88

Maternalsocial

supp

ort

1–3

2.32

0.56

0.82

1–3

2.32

0.56

0.82

1–3

2.17

0.56

0.80

1–3

2.17

0.60

0.84

Mother-child

relatio

nship

1.17–5

3.88

0.63

0.73

1.25

–5

3.90

0.71

0.81

1.5–5

3.83

0.59

0.65

1–5

3.81

0.72

0.81

Parentalinvo

lvem

ent

1–5

3.82

1.09

0.73

1–5

3.68

1.60

0.78

1–5

3.74

1.11

0.75

1–5

3.51

1.21

0.79

Parentalkn

owledg

e1–3

2.62

0.39

0.71

1–3

2.61

0.42

0.76

1.4–3

2.61

0.39

0.65

1–3

2.60

0.41

0.73

Phy

sicalpu

nishment

1–4

2.73

1.09

0.76

1–4

2.82

1.07

0.76

1–4

2.51

1.15

0.81

1–4

2.55

1.11

0.76

Fam

ilyroutines

1–4

2.79

0.68

0.69

1–4

2.67

0.64

0.64

1–4

2.71

0.67

0.64

1–4

2.60

0.41

0.69

Unw

eigh

ted

578 J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583

(Conger and Conger 2008). Social support may also belinked to IPV and parenting through alternate pathwaysamong women who experience both IPV and economichardship. Rather than mediate the relationship betweenIPV and parenting, social support may directly enhancematernal psychological functioning (Levendosky andGraham-Bermann 2001; Levendosky et al. 2003; Levendoskyet al. 2006) among mothers who experience economichardship.

Our findings are consistent with previous studieswhich have suggested that violence (physical and/orpsychological) experienced within the context of amother’s intimate partner relationship may compromisecertain aspects of parenting effectiveness (Levendoskyand Graham-Bermann 2000, 2001; Levendosky et al.2006). In the current study, mothers who experiencedIPV were more likely to spank their children when theyhad done something really wrong and/or to endorse theattitude that a good spanking is sometimes needed thanwere mothers who had not experienced IPV. It is pos-sible that for these women, stress and hostility in theirintimate partner relationships may have affected parent–child interactions, culminating in greater use and

endorsement of physical punishment. These findingsextend the recent findings by Taylor et al. (2010) thatrisk of corporal punishment appears to be higher notonly for young children but also for adolescents whosemothers are experiencing IPV. Mothers who experi-enced IPV were also less likely to be involved in theiryoung adolescents’ education. Experiences of hostilityin a mother’s intimate partner relationship may make itdifficult for her to focus attention on her child’s edu-cation. Mothers may be more focused on keeping thechild safe or shielding the child from witnessing vio-lence instead of making sure her child’s homework isdone, talking to her child about what he or she waslearning in school, or helping her child study. Futurestudies should examine the degree to which such dy-namics compromise adolescents’ school performance.

Parent–child relationship quality was unrelated tomaternal IPV, depression, and social support in studymodels. Because the parent–child relationship qualityrepresents the degree of support, trust, and positivecommunication in the parent–child relationship, it wasexpected that this might be particularly sensitive tomothers’ experiences of IPV or depression. However,

Table 2 Descriptive and bivariate statistics of demographic characteristics by intimate partner violence (unweighted)

Demographic variables % No IPV last 12 months (n0789) % IPV last 12 months (n0262) Total (n01,051)

Caregiver relationship to child*

Biological, adoptive, or stepmother 92 % (726) 96 % (252) 93 % (984)

Other caregiver (grandmother, aunt,cousin, nonbiological caregiver, etc.)

8 % (63) 4 % (10) 7 % (73)

Mean caregiver age** 39 (SD 8.6) 36 (SD 6.9) 38 (SD 8.3)

Mean child age 12 (SD 1.4) 12 (SD 1.3) 12 (SD 1.4)

Child gender

Male 48 % (377) 49 % (130) 48 % (511)

Female 52 % (412) 50 % (132) 51 % (546)

Child race/ethnicity*

Latino 50 % (391) 43 % (113) 48 % (507)

African American 39 % (312) 49 % (128) 42 % (443)

White and other 11 % (86) 8 % (20) 10 % (107)

Household composition*

Mother only (biological/adoptive) 66 % (525) 73 % (192) 68 % (722)

Mother and other (i.e., father, stepfather,male partner, extended kin)

24 % (192) 23 % (59) 24 % (252)

Other HH structure (no biological/adoptive mother) 9 % (72) 4 % (11) 8 % (83)

Mother’s education

High school or less than high school degree 59 % (461) 53 % (139) 57 % (600)

More than high school degree 42 % (327) 47 % (123) 43 % (450)

Income-to-needs ratioa 0.76 (SD 0.58) 0.68 (SD 0.47) 0.73 (SD 0.56)

6 missing values on IPV variable, n01,051. a A score of 1 means that income is equal to needs. Scores below 1 mean that needs exceed householdincome. A score greater than 1 means that income exceeds needs

*p<.05, **p<.000

J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583 579

the parent–child relationship may be difficult to alter.Laursen and Collins (2009) asserted that “patterns ofcommunication and interdependence established duringchildhood are assumed to carry forward into adolescence” (p.8). In the presence of increased conflict and relationshipstressors that emerge during the adolescent developmen-tal period, poor quality parent–child relationships mayfurther decline. Conversely, positive parent–child rela-tionships may be more resilient to change, becauseparents and their adolescents can draw upon thestrengths of their relationship to resolve conflicts. Thus,among families with positive parent–child interactions,the parent–child relationship quality may not vary basedon the mother’s experience with IPV in the last12 months. The fact that parent–child relationship qual-ity was on average moderately high may help to explainwhy IPV was not significantly associated with parent–child relationship quality in the current study.

Maternal knowledge of her child’s activities whenunsupervised was also unrelated to IPV, depression,and social support. This finding was contrary to ourexpectation that IPV might disrupt the ability of moth-ers to obtain knowledge of their young adolescents’friends, whereabouts, and activities when unsupervised.Urban, low-income neighborhoods in the U.S. are oftencharacterized by high levels of community and schoolviolence. Mothers might feel it necessary to be hyper-vigilant in their efforts to know their children’s affilia-tions and whereabouts regardless of their violentromantic relationship experiences. Thus, maternalknowledge would not be highly influenced by intimatepartner relationships.

Limitations

This study permitted an understanding of how IPV in thepast 12 months influenced parenting practices 1 yearlater. It is possible that IPV also may have occurredsometime before the 12-month time period assessed inthis study. This prior exposure was not accounted for inthe current study but is nonetheless a factor that mayaffect parenting outcomes. The extent to which IPVinfluences parenting may be related to patterns of persis-tence, stability, and desistance of IPV that could not beestablished in the current study. This study benefitedfrom the rich array of parenting variables available inthe Three-City Study data set. The availability of bothmother and child report of parenting variables helped toguard against common method variance, but the absenceof mother and child measures for all parenting variablesremains a limitation. In addition, mothers’ reports of IPVin the last 12 months may be vulnerable to recall bias.The findings of this study are also limited by the sample,T

able

3Correlatio

nsof

maternalIPV,maternaldepression

,maternalsocial

supp

ort,andparentingpractices

variables

Variables

12

34

56

78

910

1112

1.T1maternaldepression

–

2.T1maternalsocial

supp

ort

−0.33

****

–

3.T1parent–child

relatio

nshipqu

ality

−0.07

0.07

–

4.T1maternalinvo

lvem

ent

−0.03

0.08

*0.38

****

–

5.T1maternalkn

owledg

e−0.08

**

0.07

0.42

****

0.31

****

–

6.T1family

routines

−0.17

****

0.12

****

0.18

****

0.16

****

0.17

****

–

7.T1ph

ysical

punishment

−0.05

0.03

0.07

−0.00

20.02

0.08

**

–

8.T2parent–child

relatio

nshipqu

ality

−0.08

**

0.04

0.50

****

0.29

****

0.36

****

0.16

****

0.02

–

9.T2maternalinvo

lvem

ent

−0.03

0.04

0.28

****

0.45

****

0.28

****

0.15

****

−0.01

0.47

****

–

10.T2maternalkn

owledg

e−0.06

*−0.01

0.29

****

0.21

****

0.47

****

0.16

****

0.04

0.51

****

0.42

****

–

11.T2family

routines

−0.12

***

0.04

0.13

****

0.15

****

0.08

**

0.50

****

0.02

0.11

***

0.17

****

0.08

**

–

12.T2ph

ysical

punishment

−0.02

0.02

0.04

−0.03

0.04

0.03

0.44

****

0.09

**

−0.01

0.07

0.06

–

Associatio

nsweretested

usingSpearman

correlation.

*p<.05.

**p<.01.

***p<.001

.****p<.000

580 J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583

which was comprised of urban, low-income mothers andtheir children from three U.S. cities. While this samplemay be considered representative of urban, low-incomeU.S. mothers, findings cannot be generalized to otherpopulations.

Study Implications

This is one of the first studies to show that maternalIPV was associated with parenting among adolescentsand their mothers living in urban low-income commu-nities. Although depression and social support were notfound to mediate the relationship between either mater-nal involvement in children’s education or physical pun-ishment, findings suggest that mothers of adolescentswho have experienced IPV in the last 12 months maybe at risk for compromised parenting. Mothers may bemore likely to disengage from involvement in theiryoung adolescents’ education, a parenting behavior thatcould have a negative influence on children’s academicperformance and school engagement. Mothers of adoles-cents who experienced IPV in the last 12 months mayalso be more likely to endorse spanking attitudes ordiscipline their adolescents with spanking. The use ofphysical punishment strategies may have negative

consequences for child and adolescent outcomes. Thereis evidence that children and young adolescents’ behav-ioral problems increase when mothers exposed to IPVuse physical punishment strategies (Hazen et al. 2006).

These findings emphasize the importance of IPV screen-ing among mothers of young adolescents. For example, bothIPVand depression screening for mothers of young childrenare increasingly implemented in mental health and pediatricsettings. Screening protocols for mothers of adolescents arealso needed. In addition to providing the mother with IPVprevention and treatment resources, positive screens for IPVcall for counseling and guidance that emphasize strengthen-ing parenting strategies. For urban, low-income caregivers,nonphysical discipline approaches and strategies for en-hanced parental engagement in children’s education maybe useful. Providing information about IPV prevention andintervention resources to parents at schools in urban, low-income communities may serve the dual purpose of address-ing an important community problem while indirectly help-ing to bolster the academic success of young adolescentswhose mothers have experienced IPV. More research expli-cating pathways that explain how parenting of adolescents isaffected by maternal IPV will help to inform prevention andintervention strategies that aim to enhance parenting in high-risk families.

Table 4 Multiple regression of maternal IPV, depression, and social support predicting mothers’ parenting practices

Models Time 2 mother involvement Time 2 mother’s physical punishment Time 2 family routines

B SE β B SE β B SE β

Time 1 ever IPV last 12 months −0.05* 0.02 −0.10 −0.06** −0.02 −0.12 −0.02 0.01 −0.07

Time 1 depression −0.05 0.07 −0.04 −0.05 0.08 −0.03 −0.12* 0.06 −0.12

Time 1 social support −0.10 0.08 −0.07 0.01 0.08 0.01 −0.08 0.05 −0.08

Time 1 parenting variable 0.52**** 0.04 0.51 0.40**** 0.06 0.40 0.38**** 0.06 0.37

Mother age 0.00004 0.002 −0.02 0.003* 0.002 0.13 −0.0003 0.001 −0.02

Child age −0.02** 0.007 −0.11 0.002 0.01 0.01 0.003 0.01 0.03

Child race

African American 0.03 0.02 0.07 −0.07 0.03 −0.14 −0.01 0.02 −0.03

White 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.01 0.03 0.01

Household structure

Mother with either father,stepfather, partner, other kin

−0.0005 0.02 −0.001 −0.02 0.02 0.04 0.003 0.02 0.01

No biological family 0.02 0.05 0.02 0.03 0.05 0.03 0.004 0.02 −0.01

Mother’s education −0.02 0.02 −0.03 0.02 0.02 0.05 0.02 0.02 0.06

Income 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.07

Model R2 0.36 0.23 0.17

Model F 28.28**** 14.15**** 5.64****

Reference group for child race is Latino; for household structure is mother only households (mother includes biological and adoptive mothers); formothers’ education is high school degree or less* p<.05. ** p<.01. *** p<.001. **** p<.0001

J Fam Viol (2012) 27:573–583 581

Acknowledgments Support for this study comes from a U.S.Department of Health and Human Services Heath Resources andServices Administration (HRSA) National Research Service Award(T32HP10004).

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