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The Moderating and Mediating Role of Responsive Parenting Behavior in Explaining the Link between Intimate Partner Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Young Children

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Abstract

Responsive parenting serves an influential role in explaining the link between children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and children’s mental health impairment, but how this occurs is not well elucidated. In some cases, researchers examine parenting as a mediator to explain how IPV leads to maladaptive outcomes (i.e., IPV negatively impacts one’s capacity for responsive parenting, which in turn impacts children), whereas others examine moderation in which either the absence of responsive parenting exacerbates adverse outcomes or increased responsive parenting buffers risk. Mediation addresses theoretical questions about how or why IPV leads to maladaptive outcomes, whereas moderation addresses who might be most impacted. However, responsive parenting has rarely, if ever, been tested as both a mediator and moderator of the link between IPV and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) within the same sample. The current study examined the mediating and moderating role of responsive parenting on physical IPV exposure and child PTSS in a longitudinal sample of 391 children ages 3 to 5 years (M = 4.74, SD = 0.89). Self-report measures of physical IPV exposure, parenting practices, and PTSS were completed by mothers. We found that responsive parenting significantly moderated and mediated the association between physical IPV exposure and child PTSS over time. Studies that include tests of both moderation and mediation are critical for advancing mechanistic insight into the role of parenting in the etiology of mental health impairment in children exposed to IPV.

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Funding

Financial support for the study was provided by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (U01MH090301; R01MH082830) and by the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, 06030, USA

    Brandon L. Goldstein, Kimberly J. McCarthy, Carolyn A. Greene, Damion J. Grasso & Margaret J. Briggs-Gowan

  2. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, and Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences, Northwestern University, 633 N. St. Clair, Suite 1900, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Lauren S. Wakschlag

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 65 Kane Street, West Hartford, Connecticut, 06119-7120, USA

    Brandon L. Goldstein

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  1. Brandon L. Goldstein
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  2. Kimberly J. McCarthy
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Correspondence to Brandon L. Goldstein.

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Goldstein, B., McCarthy, K., Greene, C. et al. The Moderating and Mediating Role of Responsive Parenting Behavior in Explaining the Link between Intimate Partner Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Young Children. Journ Child Adol Trauma (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-023-00593-3

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