Pathways Linking Victimization, Depression, Personal Mastery, and Perceptions of Parenting Competence Among Low-Income Women

Millions of women experience childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and physical intimate partner violence (PIPV). Yet, little is known about the pathways through which these victimization experiences may impact women’s sense of their parenting competence. We conducted a secondary analysis of a dataset obtain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child and family studies 2015-09, Vol.24 (9), p.2817-2826
Main Authors: Renner, Lynette M., Cavanaugh, Courtenay E., Easton, Scott D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Child Abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Child and School Psychology
Child Neglect
Child Rearing
Data analysis
Depression
Depression (Psychology)
Domestic violence
Family Violence
Females
Hypothesis
Low Income
Low income groups
Mental depression
Mental health
Mothers
Original Paper
Parenting
Parenting Styles
Parents & parenting
Perceptions
Psychology
Resistance (Psychology)
Sex crimes
Sexual Abuse
Social psychology
Social Sciences
Social Work
Sociology
Victims of Crime
Violence
Women
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Summary:Millions of women experience childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and physical intimate partner violence (PIPV). Yet, little is known about the pathways through which these victimization experiences may impact women’s sense of their parenting competence. We conducted a secondary analysis of a dataset obtained through the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect. The purpose of our study was to examine associations between CSA, PIPV, depressive symptoms, personal mastery, and perceptions of parenting competence among low-income mothers of young children ( N  = 264). Our hypotheses were: (a) CSA would be positively associated with PIPV, (b) PIPV would be positively associated with depressive symptoms and negatively associated with mastery and parenting competence, and (c) the association between PIPV and women’s sense of parenting competence would be mediated by depressive symptoms and mastery. The results supported our first and third hypotheses and partially supported our second hypothesis. Our study findings suggest that interventions that reduce mothers’ depressive symptoms may also improve their perceptions of personal mastery and parenting competence.
ISSN:1062-1024
1573-2843
DOI:10.1007/s10826-014-0086-2