Postnatal domestic violence and emotional and behavioral problems in Indian children: mediation by maternal depression

• In Event: Developmental Research on Maltreatment and Violence

Abstract

Background
Existing evidence supports an association between parental domestic violence (DV) and child emotional and behavioral problems. Most studies focus on composite measures of DV or solely physical DV, use cross-sectional reporting of DV and child outcomes which may inflate associations ,and critically, focus on High Income Country (HIC) samples. It is important that the association between DV and child emotional and behavioral problems is examined in Low and Middle Income (LMIC) settings as differences in family structure and cultural attitudes towards violence may affect these associations. No existing study in India has examined associations between DV and child mental health outcomes. Further, evidence from HIC suggests that effect of DV on child emotional and behavioral problems in mediated by maternal mental health (Green et al., 2019) but this has not been tested in a LMIC setting.

Hypotheses
It is hypothesized that a composite of any DV exposure, and psychological, physical and sexual DV individually, will be associated with increased emotional and behavioral problems in preschool Indian children. It is further hypothesized that this will be mediated by maternal depressive symptoms.

Study population
Children and their mothers participating in an Indian-based population birth cohort (Bangalore Child Health and Development Study; BCHADS), the only prospective study in India to assess child mental health problems. The sample analysed here comprise families who provided data during pregnancy, at age 2 years and age 4 years (N=468).

Methods
Mothers reported at 5 weeks, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years postpartum on DV (physical, psychological and sexual) using an interview measure of DV which assessed violence from any adult in the household (binary present/absent variables used for analysis), at 2 years on their depression symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and at age 2 and 4.5 years on their child’s emotional and behavioral problems using the Child Behavior Checklist. Analysis used the PROCESS macro in SPSS to test mediation models. Multivariate analysis accounted for child sex, SES, mothers age and CBCL scores at age 2 years.

Results
In bivariate analysis, exposure to any DV and to psychological, physical and sexual DV individually were all associated with increased maternal depression symptoms. Any DV and psychological DV were associated with increased child emotional and behavioral problems, and sexual DV was associated with increased child emotional problems. In mediation models, there was a significant indirect effect of any DV and of all individual forms of DV on child emotional and behavioral problems via maternal PND, and no significant direct effect of any forms of DV. Findings suggest that psychological, physical and sexual DV impact on preschool emotional and behavioral problems via increasing maternal depressive symptoms.

Authors

• Helen Sharp, University of Liverpool
  Presenting Author

• Nicky Wright, Manchester Metropolitan University

• TA Supraja, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences

• Laura Bozicevic, University of Liverpool

• Jonathan Hill, University of Reading

• Andrew Pickles

• Prabha Chandra, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences