Childhood maltreatment and parenting: Indirect associations via posttraumatic stress symptoms

Maltreatment survivors may be at risk for parenting challenges, though the previous literature is inconsistent and much of the prior work has not examined cumulative maltreatment and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in tandem. Further, there are a variety of parenting domains that remain unstudied in this area, including sense of competency, social desirability, parent-child communication, limit setting, and gender role orientation. The aims of the present study were to investigate (a) cumulative maltreatment and PTSS in relation to several parenting factors (e.g., perceived parental competency, communication, limit setting, gender role orientation, and social desirability) and (b) whether PTSS demonstrated an indirect effect between maltreatment and the five parenting outcomes.

Participants were 128 trauma-exposed (M_age = 37.72, SD = 8.33; 55.5% women, 52.3% White) individuals who were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

Unexpectedly, maltreatment was unrelated to all five parenting variables. PTSS were positively associated with more adverse limit setting and higher levels of social desirability. PTSS demonstrated an indirect effect on the relationship between maltreatment and social desirability as well as limit setting. Certain demographic factors (e.g., age, sex, income) were associated with specific parenting variables, in different ways. For example, younger age and lower income were tied to greater perceived parental competency. Younger participants and men endorsed more adaptive parental communication behaviors.

Current PTSS, compared with prior maltreatment experiences, may be related to distinct parenting challenges, such as setting limits. PTSS may also correspond with issues of social desirability, which may have an effect on self-report measures more broadly. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).