Adulthood Depression, Anxiety, and Trauma Symptoms: A Comparison of Women With Nonabusive, Abusive, and Absent Father Figures in Childhood

We collected data from 447 women (aged 18 or higher) from seven domestic violence programs and five substance use disorder treatment programs in a midwestern state. Women who reported a nonabusive natural/adoptive father or stepfather (N = 185), abusive natural/adoptive father or stepfather (N = 200...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Violence and victims 2004-12, Vol.19 (6), p.659-671
Main Authors: Downs, William R., Rindels, Barb
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Anxiety - diagnosis
Anxiety - epidemiology
Battered Women
Behavioral Sciences
Child
Child Abuse
Child Abuse - psychology
Childhood Factors
Counseling
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - epidemiology
Father Absence
Father-Child Relations
Fathers
Fathers - psychology
Female
Females
Humans
Male
Marriage and Family Counselling
Mental Health
Multivariate Analysis
Policy, Social Justice, and Human Rights
Psychology
Single Parent
Social and Personality Psychology
Social Work
Spouse Abuse - statistics & numerical data
Substance Abuse
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Summary:We collected data from 447 women (aged 18 or higher) from seven domestic violence programs and five substance use disorder treatment programs in a midwestern state. Women who reported a nonabusive natural/adoptive father or stepfather (N = 185), abusive natural/adoptive father or stepfather (N = 200), or absent father figure (N = 40) were compared on a series of mental health measures with multivariate analysis of variance and pairwise post hoc comparisons using the Bonferroni test. Women with absent father figures were found to have significantly lower mean scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40) than women with abusive fathers. There were no significant differences between women with absent father figures and women with nonabusive father figures on the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and TSC-40. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.
ISSN:0886-6708
1945-7073
DOI:10.1891/vivi.19.6.659.66346