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Intimate Partner Violence and Food Insecurity Predict Early Behavior Problems Among South African Children over 5-years Post-Birth

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Abstract

Households experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) and food insecurity are at high risk of lifelong physical and behavioral difficulties. Longitudinal data from a perinatal home-visiting cluster-randomized controlled intervention trial in South Africa townships were used to examine the relationships between household settings and mothers’ histories of risk and children’s behavior problems at 3 and 5 years of age. IPV, food insecurity, maternal depressed mood, and geriatric pregnancy (at age of 35 or older) were consistently associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Aggressive behavior was more prevalent among 3- and 5-year olds boys, and was associated with maternal alcohol use. The effects of these factors on child behavior were more prominent than maternal HIV status. There is a continuing need to reduce IPV and household food insecurity, as well as supporting older, depressed, alcohol using mothers in order to address children’s behavioral needs.

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Abbreviations

ARV:

Anti-retroviral

CBCL:

Child behavior checklist

CHWs:

Community health workers

CI:

Confidence interval

EPDS:

Edinburgh postnatal depression scale

HFIAS:

Household food insecurity access scale

HICs:

High-income countries

IPV:

Intimate partner violence

LMICs:

Low- and middle-income countries

MD:

Mean difference

OR:

Odds ratio

PMTCT:

Prevention of mother to child transmission

RtHC:

Road-to-health card

SD:

Standard deviation

SE:

Standard error

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) R01AA017104 and supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) MH58107, 5P30AI028697, and UL1TR000124. PHR is supported by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) T32MH109205 and Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) P30MH58107. MT is supported by the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and is a lead investigator of the Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, in South Africa. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Mark Tomlinson and Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus are joint senior authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Centre for Children and Families, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, The University of California, 10920 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, USA

    Panteha Hayati Rezvan, Joan Christodoulou, Ellen Almirol, Thomas R. Belin & Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus

  2. Department of Global Health, Institute for Life Course Health Research, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa

    Mark Tomlinson, Jacqueline Stewart & Sarah Gordon

  3. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University, Belfast, UK

    Mark Tomlinson

  4. Department of Biostatistics, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, USA

    Thomas R. Belin

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  1. Panteha Hayati Rezvan
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Correspondence to Panteha Hayati Rezvan.

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Ethical Approval

The Institutional Review Boards of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stellenbosch University approved the study (IRB#10–000386). All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Table S1.

Estimated regression coefficient with 95% CI obtained from linear mixed-effects model for analysis of child behavioral outcomes on potential structural factors and maternal risks. Supplementary file1 (DOCX 18 kb)

Table S2.

Estimated regression coefficient with 95% CI obtained from logistic mixed-effects model for analysis of child behavioral outcomes on potential structural factors and maternal risks. Supplementary file2 (DOCX 18 kb)

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Hayati Rezvan, P., Tomlinson, M., Christodoulou, J. et al. Intimate Partner Violence and Food Insecurity Predict Early Behavior Problems Among South African Children over 5-years Post-Birth. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 52, 409–419 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01025-1

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