Citation

Roustit C, Renahy E, Guernec G, Lesieur S, Parizot I, Chauvin P. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2009; 63(7): 563-568.

Affiliation

UMR S707, Research Group on the Social Determinants of Health and Health Care, Paris, France.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/jech.2008.077750

PMID

19477880

PMCID

PMC2696641

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Early family-level and social-level stressors are both assumed to be the components of two main path models explaining the association between exposure to interparental violence in childhood and its long-term consequences on mental health explored through lifecourse epidemiological studies. AIMS: To investigate the association between exposure to interparental violence in childhood and mental health outcomes in adulthood when taking into account early family and social stressors. METHODS: A retrospective French cohort study of 3023 adults representative of the general population in the Paris metropolitan area was conducted in 2005 through at home,face-to-face interviews. The outcomes measureswere current depression and lifetime suicide attempt,intimate partner violence, violence against children and alcohol dependence. RESULTS: The adults exposed to interparental violence during childhood had a higher risk of psychosocial maladjustment. After adjusting for family- and social-level stressors in childhood, this risk was, respectively, 1.44(95% CI 1.03 to 2.00) for depression, 3.17 (1.75 to 5.73)for conjugal violence, 4.75 (1.60 to 14.14) for child maltreatment and 1.75 (1.19 to 2.57) for alcohol dependence. CONCLUSIONS: The adult consequences of parental violence in childhood - and this independently of the other forms of domestic violence and the related psychosocial risks - should lead to intensifying the prevention of and screening for this form of maltreatment of children.

Language: en