Maternal Experiences of Trauma, Parenting, and Child Behavior Among Low-Income, African American Families

• In Event: Understanding trauma in vulnerable children and families: addressing the intersection of multiple systems' level risk factors

Abstract

Trauma can be instantiated in experiences of community violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and child maltreatment. Women are highly likely to be victims of trauma (Tolin & Foa, 2006), and display adverse outcomes resulting from trauma exposure (Irish et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2022). Extant research suggests that maternal trauma is related to negative parenting and child outcomes (Zhang & Anderson, 2010). We examined the buffering role of positive parenting on the relation between maternal trauma exposure and children’s behavioral outcomes.

Methods

Our sample was 157 African American mothers and their 4-7 year old children (mean age = 6.0 years, SD = .63), from low-income families. Mothers were on average 31.51 years old (SD=6.92), mostly employed (70.1%), and largely single parents (76.3%). Data were collected in families’ homes. Questionnaires addressed exposure to crime, general trauma, and physical/sexual abuse (Trauma History Questionnaire, Hooper et al., 2011), childhood experience of family and community adversity (Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale; Research and Evaluation Group at PHMS, 2013), as well as children’s experience of trauma (Trauma Exposure Screening Inventory, Ghosh-Ippen et al., 2002) and behavioral problems (Child Behavior Checklist; Achenbach, 1991). Parent-child interaction videotapes were coded for maternal sensitivity and dyadic quality using the Three-Bag coding system (Mills-Koonce & Cox, 2013).

Results

Bivariate correlations showed significant positive relations between maternal sensitivity and exposure to crime (r=.23, p<.01), general trauma (r=.23, p<.01), physical/sexual abuse (r=.18, p<.05), total trauma history (r=.26, p<.01), family ACEs (r=.17, p<.05), community ACEs (r=.16, p<.05), total ACEs (r=.19, p<.05), and children’s trauma exposure (r=.20, p<.05). Additionally, dyadic quality was positively related to exposure to crime (r=.18, p<.05), general trauma (r=.16, p<.05), total trauma history (r=.18, p<.05), and children’s trauma exposure (r=.19, p<.05). We conducted moderation analyses examining whether positive parenting buffered children against trauma (see Table 1). Maternal sensitivity did not buffer children against trauma exposure. However, dyadic quality served as a buffer between maternal ACEs and children’s behavior problems. Simple slope analyses revealed that, among mother-child dyads with relatively low dyadic quality, maternal ACE exposure was significantly associated with higher externalizing (β = -.14, p<.05) and higher internalizing (β = -.15, p<.05) behavior problems (see Figures 1 and 2).

Discussion

Our findings revealed positive associations between various forms of trauma exposure and positive parenting (i.e., maternal sensitivity and dyadic quality). This is inconsistent with the literature documenting a negative relation between trauma and maternal parenting (Zhang & Anderson, 2010). However, some studies do suggest that maternal experience of trauma exposure does not always compromise parenting (Grogan-Kaylor et al., 2020), and may lead to mothers’ attempts to provide their children with more responsive parenting (LeTourneau et al., 2013). Further, we found that dyadic quality is an important protective factor against the impact of maternal trauma on children’s behavior problems. This finding aligns with research documenting the buffering role of dyadic quality on the impact of Intimate Partner Violence on children’s outcomes (Harden et al., 2021). Implications of these findings for research and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Brenda Jones Harden, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Justin Kyle Scott, University of Maryland, Baltimore