Citation

Bert SC, Guner BM, Lanzi RG, Neglect CPC. Fam. Relat. 2009; 58(2): 176-187.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, National Council on Family Relations (USA), Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00545.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of abuse among a sample of 681 teen, adult low-resource, and adult high-resource first-time mothers. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 36 years, with a mean of 20 years. Exposure to childhood emotional and to physical abuse were associated with 6-month parenting behavior but not with parenting knowledge. Teen mothers, as opposed to adult mothers, had higher mean scores for exposure to childhood emotional and physical abuse. Adult high-resource mothers reported lower mean scores on each abuse outcome than both teen and adult low-resource mothers. For the total sample of mothers, as past exposure to emotional and physical abuse increased, maternal responsivity decreased and opinions toward, and propensities for, abusive behavior increased.

Language: en