Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

PTSD Symptom Trajectories among Mothers Reporting Interpersonal Trauma: Protective Factors and Parenting Outcomes

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Family Violence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The childbearing years are further complicated when experiences of interpersonal trauma from childhood and/or adulthood lead to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Maternal symptoms of PTSD over time were examined in relation to supportive adult relationships and parenting experiences. Ninety-five primarily economically disadvantaged mothers reporting exposure to childhood maltreatment and/or intimate partner violence were assessed from pregnancy through 2-years postpartum. Latent class growth analysis of PTSD symptoms indicated a 2-group model: stable low (82%) and moderate dysfunction (18%). The stable low group reported higher levels of support from romantic partners and family members, but not friends, and lower levels of parenting distress compared to the moderate dysfunction group. Results highlight individual variability in adaptation after violence exposure; current support from romantic partners and family members may have helped maintain lower PTSD symptoms for some trauma-exposed mothers. Psychological interventions aimed at reducing the impact of trauma exposure on parenting should consider promoting ongoing social support.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abidin, R. R. (1995). Parenting stress index: Professional manual (3rd edn.). Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.

  • Anders, S. L., Shallcross, S. L., & Frazier, P. A. (2012). Beyond criterion A1: the effects of relational and non-relational traumatic events. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 13(2), 134–151. doi:10.1080/15299732.2012.642744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, K. M., & Bang, E. (2012). Assessing PTSD and resilience for females who during childhood were exposed to domestic violence. Child & Family Social Work, 17(1), 55–65. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2011.00772.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armour, C., Shevlin, M., Elklit, A., & Mroczek, D. (2012). A latent growth mixture modeling approach to PTSD symptoms in rape victims. Traumatology, 18(1), 20–28. doi:10.1177/1534765610395627.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aspelmeier, J. E., Elliott, A. N., & Smith, C. H. (2007). Childhood sexual abuse, attachment, and trauma symptoms in college females: the moderating role of attachment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31(5), 549–566. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2006.12.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belsky, J., Jaffee, S. R., Sligo, J., Woodward, L., & Silva, P. A. (2005). Intergenerational transmission of warm-sensitive-stimulating parenting: a prospective study of mothers and fathers of 3-year-olds. Child Development, 76(2), 384–396. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00852.x.

  • Bergman, L. R., & Magnusson, D. (1997). A person-oriented approach in research on developmental psychopathology. Developmental Psychopathology, 9, 291–319. doi: 10.1017/S095457949700206X.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, D. P., & Fink, L. (1998). Childhood trauma questionnaire: A retrospective self-report: Manual. San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bert, S. C., Guner, B. M., & Lanzi, R. G. (2009). The influence of maternal history of abuse on parenting knowledge and behavior. Family Relations, 58, 176–187. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00545.x.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Blanchard, E. B., Jones-Alexander, J., Buckley, T. C., & Forneris, C. A. (1996). Psychometric properties of the PTSD checklist (PCL). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 669–673. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(96)00033-2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., & Mancini, A. D. (2012). Beyond resilience and PTSD: mapping the heterogeneity of responses to potential trauma. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 4(1), 74–83. doi:10.1037/a0017829.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bosch, L. A., & Curran, M. A. (2011). Identity style and relationship quality for pregnant cohabitating couples during the transition to parenthood. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 11(1), 47–63. doi:10.1080/15283488.2010.540738.

  • Braiker, H. B., & Kelley, H. H. (1979). Conflict in the development of close relationships. In R. Burgess & T. Huston (Eds.), Social exchange and developing relationships (pp. 135–168). New York: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Busuito, A., Huth-Bocks, A., & Puro, E. (2014). Romantic attachment as a moderator of the association between childhood abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Journal of Family Violence, 29, 567–577. doi:10.1007/s10896-014-9611-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charuvastra, A., & Cloitre, M. (2008). Social bonds and posttraumatic stress disorder. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 301–328. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085650.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chemtob, C. M., & Carlson, J. G. (2004). Psychological effects of domestic violence on children and their mothers. International Journal of Stress Management, 11, 209–226. doi:10.1037/1072-5245.11.3.209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cloitre, M., Miranda, R., Stovall-McClough, K. C., & Han, H. (2005). Beyond PTSD: emotion regulation and interpersonal problems as predictors of functional impairment in survivors of childhood abuse. Behavior Therapy, 36, 119–124. doi:10.1016/S0005-7894(05)80060-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crnic, K. A., & Greenberg, M. A. (1990). Minor parenting stresses with young children. Child Development, 61, 1628–1637. doi:10.2307/1130770.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J., Slade, P., Wright, I., & Stewart, P. (2008). Posttraumatic stress symptoms following childbirth and mothers’ perceptions of their infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 29, 537–554. doi:10.1002/imhj.20197.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, D., Fletcher, S., Parslow, R., Phelps, A., O’Donnell, M., Bryant, R. A., McFarlane, A., Silove, D., & Creamer, M. (2012). Trauma at the hands of another: longitudinal study of differences in the posttraumatic stress disorder symptom profile following interpersonal compared with noninterpersonal trauma. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 73, 372–376. doi:10.4088/JCP.10m06640.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haskett, M. E., Ahern, L. S., Ward, C. S., & Allaire, J. C. (2006). Factor structure and validity of the parenting stress index–short form. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35, 302–312. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3502_14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huth-Bocks, A. C., Levendosky, A. A., Bogat, G. A., & von Eye, A. (2004). The impact of maternal characteristics and contextual variables on infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 75, 480–496. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00688.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huth-Bocks, A. C., Krause, K., Ahlfs-Dunn, S., Gallagher, E., & Scott, S. (2013). Relational trauma and posttraumatic stress symptoms among pregnant women. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 41, 277–302. doi:10.1521/pdps.2013.41.2.277.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Iverson, K. M., Dick, A., McLaughlin, K. A., Smith, B. N., Bell, M. E., Gerber, M. R., Dick, A., Smith, B. N., Bell, M. E., Cook, N., & Mitchell, K. S. (2013). Exposure to interpersonal violence and its associations with psychiatric morbidity in a U.S. national sample: a gender comparison. Psychology of Violence, 3(3), 273–287. doi:10.1037/a0030956.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jonzon, E., & Lindblad, F. (2005). Adult female victims of child sexual abuse: multitype maltreatment and disclosure characteristics related to subjective health. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20(6), 651–666. doi:10.1177/0886260504272427.

  • Jung, T., & Wickrama, K. A. S. (2008). An Introduction to latent class growth analysis and growth mixture modeling. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 302–317. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00054.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelleher, K. J., Hazen, A. L., Coben, J. H., Wang, Y., McGeehan, J., Kohl, P. L., & Gardner, W. P. (2008). Self-reported disciplinary practices among women in the child welfare system: association with domestic violence victimization. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 811–818. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.12.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., & Merikangas, K. R. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 593–602. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Letourneau, N., Morris, C. Y., Secco, L., Stewart, M., Hughes, J., & Critchley, K. (2013). Mothers and infants exposed to intimate partner violence compensate. Violence and Victims, 28(4), 571–586. doi:10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-12-00077.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levendosky, A. A., & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (2001). Parenting in battered women: the effects of domestic violence on women and their children. Journal Of Family Violence, 16(2), 171–192. doi:10.1023/A:1011111003373.

  • Levendosky, A. A., Leahy, K. L., Bogat, G. A., Davidson, W. S., & von Eye, A. (2006). Domestic violence, maternal parenting, maternal mental health, and infant externalizing behavior. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 544–552. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.20.4.544.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons-Ruth, K., & Block, D. (1996). The disturbed caregiving system: relations among childhood trauma, maternal caregiving, and infant affect and attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 17, 257–275. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0355(199623)17:3<257::AID-IMHJ5>3.0.CO;2-L.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masten, A. S. (2011). Resilience in children threatened by extreme adversity: frameworks for research, practice, and translational synergy. Development & Psychopathology, 23, 493–506. doi:10.1017/S0954579411000198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, B., & Muthén, L. K. (2000). Integrating person-centered and variable-centered analyses: growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism: Clinical And Experimental Research, 24(6), 882–891. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2000.tb02070.x.

  • Muzik, M., Bockneck, E. L., Broderick, A., Richardson, P., Rosenblum, K. L., Thelen, K., & Seng, J. S. (2013). Mother–infant bonding impairment across the first 6 months postpartum: the primacy of psychopathology in women with childhood abuse and neglect histories. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 16, 29–38. doi:10.1007/s00737-012-0312-0.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Onoye, J. M., Goebert, D., Morland, L., Matsu, C., & Wright, T. (2009). PTSD and postpartum mental health of Caucasian, Asian, and Pacific Islander women. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 12, 393–400. doi:10.1007/s00737-009-0087-0.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira, J., Vickers, K., Atkinson, L., Gonzalez, A., Wekerle, C., & Levitan, R. (2012). Parenting mediates between maternal maltreatment history and maternal sensitivity in a community sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 433–437. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.01.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Procidano, M., & Heller, K. (1983). Measures of perceived social support from friends and from family: three validation studies. American Journal of Community Psychology, 11, 1–24. doi:10.1007/BF00898416.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reitman, D., Currier, R. O., & Stickle, T. R. (2002). A critical evaluation of the parenting stress index–short form (PSI-SF) in a head start population. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 384–392. doi:10.1207/S15374424JCCP3103_10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Resnick, H. S., Kilpatrick, D. G., Dansky, B. S., Saunders, B. E., & Best, C. L. (1993). Prevalence of civilian trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in a representative national sample of women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 984–991. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.61.6.984.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salloum, A., Stover, C. S., Swaidan, V. R., & Storch, E. A. (2014). Parent and child PTSD and parent depression in relation to parenting stress among trauma-exposed children. Journal of Child and Family Studies. doi:10.1007/s10826-014-9928-1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schechter, D. S., Coates, S. W., Kaminer, T., Coots, T., Zeanah, J. C., Daives, M., Schonfeld, I. S., Marshall, R. D., Liebowitz, M. R., Trabka, K. A., McCaw, J. E., & Myers, M. M. (2008). Distorted maternal mental representations and atypical behaviors in a clinical sample of violence-exposed mothers and their toddlers. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 9, 123–147. doi:10.1080/15299730802045666.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schumm, J. A., Briggs-Phillips, M., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2006). Cumulative interpersonal traumas and social support as risk and resiliency factors in predicting PTSD and depression among inner-city women. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 19(6), 825–836. doi:10.1002/jts.20159.

  • Seng, J. S., D’Andrea, W., & Ford, J. D. (2014). Complex mental health sequelae of psychological trauma among women in prenatal care. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 6, 41–49. doi:10.1037/a0031467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seng, J. S., Sperlich, M., Low, L. K., Ronis, D. L., Muzik, M., & Liberzon, I. (2013). Childhood abuse history, posttraumatic stress disorder, postpartum mental health, and bonding: a prospective cohort study. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 58(1), 57–68. doi:10.1111/j.1542-2011.2012.00237.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steenkamp, M. M., Dickstein, B. D., Salters-Pedneault, K., Hofmann, S. G., & Litz, B. T. (2012). Trajectories of PTSD symptoms following sexual assault: is resilience the modal outcome? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 25(4), 469–474. doi:10.1002/jts.21718.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., & Warren, W. L. (2003). The conflict tactics scales handbook. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M., & Bodner, T. E. (2007). Growth mixture modeling: identifying and predicting unobserved subpopulations with longitudinal data. Organizational Research Methods, 10, 635–656. doi:10.1177/1094428106289397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weathers, F. W., Litz, B. T., Herman, D. S., Huska, J. A., & Keane, T. M. (1993). The PTSD checklist (PCL): Reliability, validity, and diagnostic utility. Paper presented at the 9th Annual Conference of the ISTSS, San Antonio.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Eastern Michigan University, 341 MJ Science Building, Ypsilanti, MI, 48197, USA

    Katherine L. Guyon-Harris, Sarah Ahlfs-Dunn & Alissa Huth-Bocks

Authors
  1. Katherine L. Guyon-Harris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sarah Ahlfs-Dunn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Alissa Huth-Bocks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine L. Guyon-Harris.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Guyon-Harris, K.L., Ahlfs-Dunn, S. & Huth-Bocks, A. PTSD Symptom Trajectories among Mothers Reporting Interpersonal Trauma: Protective Factors and Parenting Outcomes. J Fam Viol 32, 657–667 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-017-9934-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-017-9934-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation