Citation

Castro M, Alcántara-López M, Martínez A, Fernández V, Sánchez-Meca J, López-Soler C. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017; 14(9): e14091077.

Affiliation

Spanish Association for the Development of Mental Health in Childhood and Youth, "I Want to Grow", Murcia 30001, Spain. clopezs@um.es.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph14091077

PMID

28926979

Abstract

This correlational cross-sectional study was designed to investigate whether the intimate partner violence (IPV) suffered by mothers (physical and psychological maltreatment), child eyewitness of psychological and physical maltreatment suffered by the mother, the neglect suffered by children, and the maltreatment (physical and psychological) directly suffered by children are statistically associated to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms exhibited by the child. In addition, the prevalence of child PTSD was estimated, as well as the concordance between the PTSD symptoms assessed by the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for child PTSD. The sample consisted of 152 Spanish children aged 8 to 17 and their mothers, who were recruited from Centers of Specialized Assistance for Women Victims of IPV. PTSD prevalence was 20.4%. The results of a canonical correlation analysis showed that the two types of maltreatment with the largest contribution to the canonical variable were physical maltreatment directly suffered by the child, and child eyewitness of physical maltreatment suffered by the mother. The potential developmental pathway of PTSD when both children and mothers suffer severe maltreatment needs to be examined, and this will contribute to the choice of the most effective type of specialized intervention.

Language: en

Keywords

CPSS; PTSD; child exposure to violence; child maltreatment; child witnessed maltreatment; childhood trauma; intimate partner violence; mother maltreatment; post-traumatic stress disorder