Child Maltreatment and Maternal Childrearing Practices: Mediation by Parental Sense of Competence

While the impact of childhood maltreatment on parenting behaviors is well-documented, the mediating mechanisms underlying this connection remain poorly understood. Research suggests that childhood adversity can undermine an individual's parental sense of competence in adulthood, thereby increasing their vulnerability to maladaptive parenting behaviors. This article explores the hypothesis that parental sense of competence acts as a mediator in the relationship between childhood maltreatment experiences and the parenting practices observed in adulthood. Our research encompassed 1904 mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 8. These mothers were asked to complete an online questionnaire comprising sociodemographic details, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - Short Form (Bernstein et al., 2003), the Parenting Sense of Competence scale (Johnston & Mash, 1989), and the questionnaire Evaluation des Pratiques Educatives Parentales (Meunier & Roskam, 2007, 2009). Our results confirmed that parental sense of competence serves as a mechanism linking childhood maltreatment to parenting behaviors, particularly regarding rules setting and inconsistency. These findings support the importance of focusing parental programs on strengthening parental sense of competence, especially among mothers with a history of childhood maltreatment.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-025-00743-9.