Associations Between Early Parenting and Maltreatment in an Early Head Start Sample

• In Event: 2-174 - Family Trauma and Parenting Processes

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Children are at the highest risk of being maltreated when they are very young, and most frequently are maltreated by a parent. Thus, understanding how early parenting is associated with maltreatment is key to developing effective prevention programs.

Aims. We will address three primary research questions:
1) Are early parenting behaviors differentially associated with types of maltreatment?
2) Is parenting in the context of a stressful situation a better predictor of maltreatment than parenting in the context of play?
3) Are there different profiles of parenting across domains of parent-child interactions that predict maltreatment?

Methods. The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, an experimental evaluation in 17 communities, videotaped mother-child interactions in two contexts, during play and during a stress situation, when children were 14 months old. The stress situation placed the child in a high chair and required the mother to stand behind and not interact. Behavior upon reunion was coded. Interactions were coded for maternal supportiveness (sensitivity, positivity/warmth, and cognitive stimulation), detachment (withdrawn), negative regard (overt and covert forms of negativity), and intrusiveness (adult directed—not coded in stress situation).

The Early Head Start Child Welfare Study is a longitudinal follow up in 16 of the 17 sites where we were able to obtain administrative child welfare records, N=2730. 399 (15%) had at least one substantiated report, with 103 (26%) experiencing only abuse, 215 (54%) only neglect, and 81 (20%) both abuse and neglect.

A variable centered approach utilized multinomial logistic regression to see if parenting behaviors predict 4 groups: 1) no maltreatment; 2) abuse only; 3) neglect only; and 4) both abuse and neglect. A person center analyses used latent profile analysis to identify profiles of parenting, which were used to predict maltreatment.

Results. Variable centered analyses show that parenting during play is associated with types of maltreatment in expected ways, neglect with detachment and lack of supportiveness while abuse is associated with intrusiveness and negative regard. Lack of support is also associated with the experience of both forms of abuse. Interestingly, associations are stronger but less differentiated in the stress situation, with detachment, and to some extent lack of supportiveness, predicting all kinds of maltreatment. There were no associations with negative regard, which was extremely rare in these interactions. See Table 1 for details.

Person centered analyses show 5 patterns of parenting, see Figure 1. Only one significant difference in maltreatment between the groups was found. Children of mothers who were supportive in play but very detached in the stress situation were significantly more likely to experience neglect than those with mothers who were supportive in both play and stress.

Conclusion. Early parenting is associated with later maltreatment. It may be that early childhood programs can mitigate the risk of later maltreatment by working with families to optimize parent-child interactions. Most early childhood programs work with parents in play or teaching situations and while this is helpful, they can also work on helping parents have strategies for coping when stress is introduced into interactions.

Authors

• Rachel Chazan-Cohen, Tufts University
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Ayoub, Childrens Hospital Boston, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katherine Paschall, Child Trends
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adam Von Ende, Boston Children's Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author