Infant Mental Health Journal

Abstract

Parents who have experienced childhood maltreatment may develop posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and display disrupted parenting behavior, particularly in situations of revictimization through intimate partner violence (IPV).This study investigated (1) the relation between parental childhood maltreatment, PTS symptoms, and disrupted parenting, and (2) whether PTS symptoms mediate the relation between childhood maltreatment and disrupted parenting.A culturally diverse sample of IPV-exposed mothers participated (N = 52; M age = 30.6years) and their children (M age = 2.8 years; range = 7.5 months-7.0years), residing in Dutch women's shelters.Multiple Bayesian regression analyses were carried out, and prior probability distributions (priors) were used, informed by a systematic literature search.Results showed a positive association between childhood maltreatment and PTS symptoms but not between these variables and the overall construct of disrupted parenting.No meaningful mediation was found.Exploratory analyses showed some inconclusive evidence for mediation of PTS symptoms in the associations between'childhood maltreatment on the one hand and role/boundary confusion and fearful/disoriented parenting behavior on the other hand.The findings highlight the relevance of childhood maltreatment in the experience of PTS symptoms.Furthermore, they underscore the need for treatment focused on trauma and parenting in families exposed to IPV.Clinical trial registration: Ethical approval was given by the Medical Research Ethics Committee Leiden The Hague Delft (MREC LDD, protocol number NL74114.058.20) and the study was pre-registered in the Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/9EW7P).

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