Mothers' violence victimization and child behavior problems: examining the link

The current study examined the link between parents' experience of violence victimization and child outcomes, in 197 mother-child dyads recruited from low-income urban neighborhoods. At recruitment (when children were between 6 and 18 months old), demographic factors, child behavioral outcomes, mother-child interactions, mothers' psychosocial functioning, and mothers' history of violence victimization were assessed. Child behavioral outcomes, mother-child interactions, and mothers' psychosocial functioning were assessed again at age 4. Mothers' history of victimization as children (but not as adults) uniquely predicted child behavior problems at age 4. Three classes of possible mediators were examined: demographics, maternal psychosocial functioning, and mother-child interactions. Of these, only mother psychological aggression toward child met preliminary criteria for mediation; it partially mediated the link between mother childhood victimization and child behavioral outcomes. Maternal depressive symptoms and young age at child's birth independently predicted child behavior problems, but did not act as mediators. Mothers' early experiences with violence victimization appear to exert an important influence on child behavioral outcomes; this influence appears to be mediated, in part, by mothers' psychological aggression toward their children.