Does Maternal Support Mediate or Moderate the Relationship Between Abuse Severity and Children’s PTSD Symptoms?

• In Event: 2-146 - Maternal Behaviors and Parenting After Children’s Trauma Exposure: Identifying Factors Promoting Children’s Adaptive Development

Integrative Statement

Background: Maternal support and abuse severity are often considered to be vital factors in predicting children’s functioning following childhood sexual abuse (CSA); however, much of the prior pediatric research has examined support and abuse severity as main effects, without consideration of how these factors may interrelate to predict children’s symptoms. Even though mediators and moderators are conceptually distinct, maternal support has been theorized to be both a mediator and a moderator of symptoms and it is unclear if support acts as either among sexually abused children. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether maternal support mediates or moderates the relationship between abuse severity and children’s trauma-related symptoms. Methods: The study included 238 treatment-seeking children (M = 9.15, SD = 3.97) and their non-offending mothers. Results: Contrary to expectations, maternal support did not mediate, and largely did not moderate, the relationship between abuse severity and children’s symptoms, although emotional support moderated the relationship between abuse severity and child-reported trauma symptoms (range r2 = .002 = .03). Children with less supportive mothers may not be at heightened risk for experiencing higher levels of trauma-related symptoms associated with CSA, as severity of the abuse increases. Conclusions: Thus, maternal support may play a smaller role in mitigating children’s trauma symptoms than previously thought. Additional research examining the relationships between abuse characteristics, parental support, and children’s trauma symptoms is necessary to further delineate the nature in which these factors may interact to understand the symptom presentations of CSA survivors.

Authors

• Rachel Wamser-Nanney, University of Missouri St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Julia C Sager, University of Missouri - St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Claudia Campbell, University of Missouri - St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author