Associations of Mental and Behavioral Problems among Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Previously and Visits with Their Fathers Who Perpetrated the Violence

Background: Intimate partner violence has long-term and negative effects on the health of mothers and children worldwide. This study aimed to identify the mental and behavioral effects of past exposure to intimate partner violence among children and examine their associations with the children’s visits with their fathers who perpetrated the intimate partner violence. Methods: A cross-sectional study of women who had been abused by their intimate partners and had one or more children aged 4 - 18 years old was conducted from March 2015 to December 2016. Questionnaires were used to collect (1) demographic data about the mothers and children, (2) information about the children’s visits with the mother’s former partner (i.e., father), and (3) psychological data using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Child Behavior Checklist/4 - 18. Results: The average scores and rates of internalizing, externalizing, and total problems among the children who had been exposed to intimate partner violence were: 10.8 (SD = 10.4), 26 (51.0%);9.0 (SD = 9.0), 14 (27.5%);and 26.3 (SD = 21.5), 15 (29.4%), respectively. Children’s visits with fathers who were IPV perpetrators were significantly associated with the internalizing (AOR = 12.6, β = 0.56;p β = 0.48;p Conclusion: Attention should focus on traumatized children exposed to intimate partner violence, and thorough and cautious assessments and decisions regarding visits with their fathers who are IPV perpetrators are essential to safeguard and improve their mental and behavioral health.

Depressive mood, bonding failure, and abusive parenting among mothers with three-month-old babies in a Japanese community

Objective: To investigate the relationships between depressive mood, bonding failure, and abusive parenting. Method: We distributed questionnaires to 1198 mothers attending a three-month postnatal health check-up in rural areas in Japan. The questionnaires assessed these three variables along with demographics. We evaluated the causal relationships by comparing different structural equation models to the data. Results: Although all the models fit the data well, the best Akaike Information Criterion was obtained from a model where both depressive mood and bonding failure predict abusive parenting, but depressive mood and bonding failure do not predict each other directly. The determinant coefficient of child abuse in the final model was 0.13. Discussion: We found depressive mood and bonding failure during postpartum period impacted negatively on mother’s parenting behaviour. Because only 13% of the variance of abusive parenting was explainable by this model, further study should be needed to identify other risk factors of child abuse. Similarly, midwives and public health nurse in community should pay attention to not only depression but also bonding failure to prevent child abuse.