Poster #94 - Maternal Childhood Sexual Trauma and Offspring Adjustment

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Compared to women without childhood sexual trauma (CST) histories, women with CST histories report problems with numerous domains of adult functioning, including greater levels of depression, intimate partner violence (IPV), and parenting difficulties with research linking CST to more hostile, controlling, and less warm and responsive caregiving behaviors (Zvara, Mills-Koonce, Carmody, & Cox, 2015; Putnam, 2003; DiLillo, Giuffre, Tremblay, & Peterson, 2001). Despite these findings, less is known about the adjustment of children of mothers with CST histories. Social competence is a key developmental challenge for young children in the early years of school, as they encounter the complex demands of teachers and peers (Rose‐Krasnor, 1997). Similarly, children with poor cognitive skills, including language deficits and general knowledge, often experience problems gaining acceptance and avoiding rejection by peers (Pentimonti, 2016). In the current study, we examine if maternal history of CST is related to (a) social competence and (b) cognitive development at grade 1 for children of mothers with and without CST histories.
Methods: The subsample (N=204) was drawn from a larger study of 1,292 families, The Family Life Project. Using propensity score matching (PSM) procedures, we created a group of mothers reporting a history of CST matched to a contrast group based on maternal family of origin variables linked to risk for abuse. Mothers completed the Trauma History Questionnaire (Green, 1996) at child age 58-months. Teachers reported on the child’s social competence and cognitive skills at the grade 1 assessment through a secure online portal. To get an overall measure of social competence, we used five indicators from the Social Competence Scale (SCS; Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2002) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 2001). To get a broad assessment of cognitive skills, we used five indicators from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery III (WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) and the Test of Early Literacy (TOPEL; Lonigan, Wagner, Torgeson, & Rashotte, 2007). All hypotheses were tested using MANOVA to draw inferences about the correlation between the groups.
Results: After controlling for numerous factors including child and primary caregiver covariates, findings reveal that maternal history of CST is related to multiple domains of child adjustment. The overall model for social competence was significant, F (4, 89) = 2.7, p < .05. When dependent variables were considered separately, the behavioral subscales of oppositional behaviors, peer problems and conduct problems emerged as significantly different between the two groups. We further found that the overall model for cognitive development was significant, F (5, 79) = 2.4, p < .05, with picture vocabulary subscale as significantly different between groups.
Conclusions: This study extends the limited research on the relations between maternal history of CST by demonstrating that maternal childhood trauma history is associated with a significant risk to the social and cognitive development of children in the next generation. Implications for interventions with children with mothers reporting a history of CST and directions for future study are proposed.

Authors

• Bharathi Zvara, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Peg Burchinal, University of North Carolina
  Non-Presenting Author