Citation

Jewkes R, Mahlangu P. Lancet Glob. Health 2023; 11(9): e1321-e1322.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00363-7

PMID

37591571

Abstract

Violence against women adversely affects the exposed women's physical and mental health, as well as affecting children who witness abuse in the home. Mothers exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) have been shown to have poorer connectedness to and communication with their children than mothers not exposed to IPV, and to use more harsh and neglectful parenting. Men's perpetration of IPV is also associated with harsh and poorer parenting, but has been less often studied. Many of the other factors associated with poorer parenting--including poverty, substance abuse, and maternal or paternal depression--are also risk factors for IPV, which underscores the value of longitudinal research and elucidation of the temporal sequence of exposures in understanding this area. Most research is currently based on cross-sectional research from high-income countries, which leaves unanswered questions around the interconnections between, and the relative importance of, different risk factors for and drivers of poorer parenting. Understanding the relationship between IPV and parenting is important for interventions to strengthen parenting, and thus contributes towards ending the intergenerational cycling of violence.


Carolina Coll and colleagues present the findings of a large birth cohort from Pelotas, Brazil, in which mother-child dyads were studied at ages 4 years and 6-7 years to investigate the association between IPV experience and mothering practices. IPV exposure was self-reported by mothers when children were 4 years old, and parenting was assessed through direct observation of parent-child interactions (filmed at age 4 years) and self-reports in interviews conducted with mothers when children were 4 years and 6-7 years old. The researchers found prevalent IPV exposure: 21·9% of the mothers reported experiencing emotional IPV and 9·4% physical or sexual IPV in the past 12 months. IPV experiences were associated with less parental sensitivity and consistency, and more harsh parenting. These parenting practices negatively affected parent-child relationship quality. An interesting finding was that both emotional IPV and physical or sexual IPV exposures were associated with these adverse parenting findings. Maternal exposure to adverse childhood experiences was strongly correlated with coercive parenting...

Language: en