Pathways from family violence exposure to disruptive behavior and suspension in elementary school

Abstract

Suspension is associated with a host of negative outcomes, including future suspension and poor academic engagement. A number of demographic and behavioral factors, such as behaviors and race/ethnicity, have been found to predict a child’s risk of suspension, however factors in the family environment, such as family violence, have not been widely explored within this body of literature. The current study examined whether disruptive behaviors mediated the relationship between family violence exposure and suspension in elementary school using data from the age 8 wave of the LONGSCAN dataset. In this sample, 68% of children had been exposed to some sort of family violence and 6.6% of children had been suspended. The direct pathway from family violence to suspension was significant, as was the indirect pathway through disruptive behaviors, where children exposed to more family violence were more likely to exhibit disruptive behaviors and more likely to be suspended. In this sample, boys and African American students were also more likely to be suspended. These findings support the need for school-based responses that addresses both the impact of violence exposure and racial disparities within discussions of children’s outcomes.     

Victims’ Retrospective Explanations of Sibling Sexual Violence

ABSTRACT

While sibling sexual abuse may be the most common form of sexual violence within the family, relatively few studies have been conducted on this topic. The current study addresses this gap in the literature through analyses of thematic categories in narratives gathered from an online survey of sibling sexual violence. Survivors were asked to report why they believed their siblings had become sexually abusive toward them. Participants believed that their abusers had learned to be abusive due to their own victimization or exposure to pornography, were abusive to establish dominance over them, or had some undisclosed mental illness. While the study does not claim to test these explanations or include abusers’ own narratives, it offers insight as to how sibling sexual violence survivors make sense of their experiences and assign blame to abusers and their families. It also offers insights into future inquiries about sibling sexual abuse.     

Homelessness,housing instability,intimate partner violence,mental health,and functioning: A multi-year cohort study of IPV survivors and their children

Abstract

Homelessness and housing instability frequently accompany intimate partner violence and can negatively impact health and functioning. When children are exposed to homelessness or housing instability their ability to develop and function is compromised. The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of homelessness and unstable housing on health and functioning of women and their children over a 2-year period. Two hundred and seventy-seven mothers reporting intimate partner violence (stalking, physical, or sexual violence by an intimate partner) were asked about housing stability, abuse, risk for murder, mental health, employment/wages, and their child's functioning over a 2-year period. Outcomes of mothers reporting homelessness and unstable housing were compared to mothers reporting stable housing. Over one-third (36%) of the mothers reported at least one episode of unstable housing over the 2-year period and 11% reported homelessness. Measures of maternal mental health and child functioning were worse for both unstably housed and homeless women, compared to stably housed women, with a higher risk for sexual abuse and risk for murder for homeless women. New models of rapid rehousing are needed that address not only the housing problems of women who have experienced intimate partner violence but also the mental health and safety issues that the women and their children face.     

The Impact of Marital Quality,Divorce, and Remarriage on the Relationships Between Parents and Their Children

SUMMARY

This paper examines data from a panel study on the long-term effects of parental marital quality and divorce on relationships between parents and adult children. Attention is focused on whether these effects vary by age and gender of child as well as the theoretical explanations linking mother-father and parent-child relations. The relational quality between adult children (18-31 years old) and both mothers and fathers is examined from the perspective of both children and parents. Among intact families, parental marital quality has long-term effects on father-child relations, regardless of gender, whereas short-term effects are characteristic of mother-child relations and only perceived by mothers. Further, although divorce without remarriage hurts sons' relationships with both fathers and mothers, it hurts father-daughter relations even more. Mother-daughter bonds appear to be improved by divorce, with declines in income explaining a large portion of the tendency for divorce to affect father-child relations.     

Social and Demographic Characteristics of Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Adults with and Without Children

SUMMARY

This is the first study to compare lesbian mothers (n = 150), lesbians without children (n = 236), heterosexual mothers (n = 175), heterosexual women without children (n = 38), gay fathers (n = 40), gay men without children (n = 163), heterosexual fathers (n = 157), and heterosexual men without children (n = 32) on social and demographic characteristics. Demographic differences included age, education, length of relationship, religion, and geographic location. Only 28% of gay fathers and 37% of lesbian mothers had at least one child from their current relationship. For women the most important factor in predicting contact with family of origin was sexual orientation, while for men it was parenting status. More gay and lesbian parents had disclosed their sexual orientation than those without children. Gay fathers reached most milestones in the coming-out process between 2.5 and 4 years later than gay men without children, while lesbian mothers reached all milestones in the coming-out process 3 to 5 years later than lesbians without children. Lesbian mothers who had children before coming out reached developmental milestones 4 to 8 years later than lesbian mothers who had children after coming out.     

Stay for the Children? Husband Violence,Marital Stability,and Children's Behavior Problems

Much research has argued for the existence of a marriage benefit to men, women, and children. Although the commonly suggested current response to a husband's violence has been for the couple to separate, traditionally women were often told to “stay for the children.” This paper uses the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods longitudinal data to examine the relationships among marital stability, husband violence, and children's behavior problems. Among married mothers who reported husband violence at time 1 (N= 414), the negative relationship between child behavior problems and remaining in the marriage dissipated when selection bias and husband violence recidivism were controlled.     

Conceived in violence: enslaved mothers and children born of rape in nineteenth-century Louisiana

ABSTRACT

Through the examination of testimony from formerly enslaved people who had been fathered by white men under slavery, this paper considers how enslaved women negotiated motherhood when their child had been conceived through rape. Evidence reveals that the relationship between enslaved mothers and their children remained strong, despite sexual violence and interference into childrearing by slaveholding families. Informants had close knowledge of the non-consensual nature of their conception, and their willingness to discuss sexual violence reflects the lack of stigma attached to rape victims in the slave community, and hints at the way that enslaved communities coped with sexual violence on an institutional level.     

Relationship-Specific Cognitions and Family-of-Origin Divorce and Abuse

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between relationship-specific cognitions and family-of-origin divorce, psychological abuse, and physical aggression. College students from divorced (N=46) and intact (N= 66) families completed questionnaires regarding their family-of-origin victimization, witnessing, and perpetration experiences as well as their relationship cognitions. A series of 2 (divorce vs. intact) by 3 severity level (none, psychological, physical) MANOVAS were conducted to assess the relationships among divorce, witnessing, perpetration, and victimization experiences with mother and father, and current relationship cognitions (assumptions, standards, and expectancies). Subjects from divorced homes reported significantly lower marriage-efficacy than subjects from intact homes. Subjects who reported physical victimization from fathers had significantly lower marriage-efficacy and lower self-efficacy than non-physically-victimized subjects. A trend was found whereby subjects who psychologically perpetrated against their mothers endorsed more dysfunctional relationship assumptions and standards and lower efficacy expectancies of partners than did those who reported no psychological or physical perpetratation against their mothers. Experiences of witnessing parental psychological and physical abuse were not related to dysfunctional relationship cognitions. These findings are discussed within an intergenerational transmission of divorce and violence framework.     

Listen to Me! Children's experiences of domestic violence

This paper reports on a study undertaken in the Republic of Ireland during 2005 and is based on the experiences of children and young people who have lived with domestic violence. The objectives of the study were to explore the impact of domestic violence on children, identify their needs and recommend appropriate interventions to be brokered through a centrally based women's support service. Data were gathered from 70 participants, including 37 service providers/volunteers, 11 mothers and 22 children and young people who had lived in violent environments. The data indicated that children respond in unique ways to living with domestic violence, and that services to meet their needs must be tailored to suit their individual situations. The impact of domestic violence on their lives manifested itself with regard to their sense of fear and anxiety in relation to themselves, their siblings and their mothers; their self‐esteem and sense of being ‘different’, their relationships (including ambivalent relationships with their fathers); their experiences of education and their sense of a lost childhood. The final report for the study was based on the total data collection, but this paper will concentrate primarily on the material elicited from the children and young people. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of college students with the revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2): Sociodemographic characteristics and relationship

ABSTRACT

This paper presents prevalence data gathered from the fast-growing metropolitan southeast in the United States college campus representative sample through an on-line 28-question survey on the sexual, physical, and psychological harm in university/college dating and domestic violence relationships. The study questions were 1) what is the prevalence of dating and domestic violence on college campus? and 2) what are the characteristics of those affected by it? The results, derived from the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) and the dating experiences survey, reveal that college students’ gender identity, sexual orientation, grade point average (GPA), number of missing classes, current relationship status that they were associated with dating and domestic violence among college students. Statistically significant relationships were found between sexual violence and participants’ sexual orientation and the length of their romantic relationship as well as physical violence, including hitting and shoving, and participants’ sexual orientation and their class attendance. Institutional responses to prevent campus violence through prevention training, education, and intervention services could lower the prevalence of dating and help alleviate the adverse effects that it could have on college students.     

Parenting from Prison

ABSTRACT

The impact of parental incarceration on minor children has been well documented. Children with at least one parent in prison are at greater risk to suffer from anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, anger, and attention deficiencies. In comparison to the research on children, less emphasis has been placed on how mothers are affected when they are incarcerated away from their children. The current research focus is how children's visitation programs and parenting classes can improve the relationships between incarcerated women and their children. Female prisoners participating in a specialized children's visitation program were interviewed to gain their perceptions of their relationships with their children and how the program had affected this bond. A comparison group of women not in the program were also questioned about their relationships with their children. The authors suggest that incarcerated mothers respond positively to institutional efforts to keep them in touch with their children.     

Birth Mothers Now Birth Grandmothers: Intergenerational Relationships in Open Adoptions

Abstract

Despite growing trends in openness between birth and adoptive families, little is known about what happens when adopted children become parents and birth mothers become birth grandmothers. These new and unique relationships between birth mothers and their grandchildren were examined through intensive case study analyses of in-depth interviews with birth mothers who placed infants for adoption more than 25?years ago (N?=?11). Findings revealed enjoyment in their role as grandmothers and emphasized the significant role the adult adoptee (parent) played in influencing communication with their grandchild and families’ incorporation of technology-mediated contact to overcome geographic barriers. Implications for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers are discussed.     

Powerlessness and Abuse and Neglect of Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This article is a qualitative study which addresses the interacting relationship between the environmental context of care giving and abuse and neglect of older adults. These are examined through a thematic content analysis of risk factors identified in sixteen ‘in depth’ interviews of abused and neglected victims including two of their abusers. The interviews provide a portrait of their past and present situations, their roles and relationships and the process through which the interviewees move into their described process of powerlessness.

The interviewees are analysed through a critical, systemic, ecological analysis of the historical, gender and cultural perspectives of the interviewees. Through the relationships of the victims and their abusers in the macro, meso, exo and micro systems, questions are raised about the growing debate regarding changes in family patterns and demographics that affect how societies define the provision of care to their dependent adults. They demonstrate that violence is produced by complex interacting systems and significant events, that impact on the life courses of some older adults and some care givers leading them into powerless positions and resulting in abuse and neglect.     

Responding to teen dating violence: Perspectives from mothers who have been abused and seeking services in domestic violence shelters

ABSTRACT

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health problem, but we know little about how mothers who have been abused respond to TDV. This article analyzes qualitative data from three focus groups conducted with 17 mothers who had experienced abuse. Mothers responded to four hypothetical scenarios of their child reporting TDV to them. Mothers reported that their approach to children’s reports of TDV would entail engaging in varying levels of authoritarianism, considering the gender of the child, and exercising caution in their responses. In response to the scenarios, mothers stated that they would ask questions, educate their teens, contact the perpetrator and/or parents, share their own experiences, and call for outside help. The study’s findings may assist prevention educators working with mothers who experienced abuse in responding to their children’s disclosures of incidents of TDV.     

Criminality and violence in intra‐ and extra‐familial child sex abusers in a 2‐year cohort of convicted perpetrators

Men convicted of sexual abuse against children are an important but understudied population. In this study, based upon lifetime police records, of the criminality of convicted child sex abusers, we undertake the first British comparative analysis of the criminality of intra‐ and extra‐familial abusers. In a cohort of 374 convicted male child sex abusers, 50% had convictions for ‘sex only’ crimes; 26% for ‘sex and other’ offences; and 24% for ‘sex, other and violent’ crimes. There were three ‘relationship‐to‐victim’ subgroups: ‘biological relatives’, consisting of fathers and other biological relatives (18%); ‘non‐biological relatives’ — cohabitees or stepfathers (10%); and 72% who were ‘extra‐familial’ offenders, having no family relationship to the child. This atypical pattern of abusers indicates a filtering process, in which intra‐familial abusers are less likely to be prosecuted than extra‐familial offenders. The main findings were: (i) biological relatives were more often ‘sex only’ offenders, but averaged more sexual offences than the other groups; (ii) non‐biological abusers has more ‘other’ criminal and convictions for violence, and were more similar to the extra‐familial offenders than biologically related abusers; (iii) extra‐familial abusers consisted of more ‘other’ criminal and violent offenders than the non‐biological abusers; (iv) non‐biological offenders, however, had a pattern of criminality more like the extra‐familial group than the other intra‐familial abusers. The violent men, often with long histories of both sexual and non‐sexual offending, pose particular problems for the criminal justice and child protection services. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kinship foster parenting; gender,class and labour-force participation

Objective: Knowledge about gender, class and labour-force participation of kinship foster parents in European countries is scarce. This study examines the gendered structure and generational pattern of kinship foster parenting in Norway and compares class components and labour-force participation of kinship foster mothers to the larger female population and to non-kinship foster mothers.

Method: The analysis is based on survey data on relationships between foster parents and child, social demographics and placement characteristics from 123 kinship and 88 non-kinship foster mothers of children in state custody. Labour Force Survey and Education Statistics from Statistics Norway were used to compare the kinship sample to the average female population.

Findings: Kinship foster care in Norway is gendered, in that it is women who assume the responsibility for relatives' children. Kinship foster care reflects class differences in that the educational level of kinship foster mothers and their household income are lower than the average female population and of non-kinship foster mothers in Norway. The labour-force participation of kinship foster mothers in Norway is comparable to that of the country's female population in general, except for women aged 35–55 with children under seven, among whom labour-force participation is lower than for the female population.     

Lesbian Stepmothers

ABSTRACT

This study details a grounded theory research project that examined the lived experiences of 29 lesbians who partnered and cohabited with the biological, custodial mothers of children from previous heterosexual relationships. Participants' experiences within their familial relationships were explored and responses were coded. Categories emerged from the coding, and a core concept of navigating visibility and claiming place was identified. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Marital Violence: Impact on Children's Emotional Experiences, Emotional Regulation and Behaviors in a Post-Divorce/Separation Situation

This study examined the mediating effects of children's emotional experiences and regulation strategies on the relationship between marital violence and children's behavioral problems following divorce/separation. Findings indicated marital violence as reported by the mothers was associated with children's internalizing problems as measured by the Achenbach Behavior Checklist. Marital violence was also associated with children's reported experience of negative emotions, with sadness and anger emerging as statistical predictors of children's behavioral problems. A weak relationship was found between emotional regulation strategies and children's behavioral problems, with the exception that direct intervention and the range of strategies used by children were positively associated with behavioral problems. Children's reported anger was also found to mediate the relationship between marital violence and children's total behavioral problems. Implications of findings for treatment of children and adolescents from separated, conflicted homes are discussed.     

A program based on Social Cognitive Theory and Smith's model of health and illness and its effect on maternal self-efficacy and child behavior

PurposeThis study was conducted in order to determine the effect of a program based on Social Cognitive Theory and Smith's Model of Health and Illness on the self-efficacy, self-esteem and attitudes of mothers and on the emotional and behavioral problems and competence levels of their children.MethodThis quasi-experimental study used a control group and a pretest-posttest design. The sample was composed of 77 mothers (experimental group, n = 39; control group, n = 38) who had low self-efficacy and self-esteem and whose children had problematic behavior. The mothers in the experimental group underwent a 10-session program over a period of 10 weeks. This program included activities to help them build trust in themselves and their surroundings, induce positive thinking, increase their childcare knowledge and skills, establish an effective interaction with their children, set realistic and positive goals, cope with stress, experience the feeling of success and become motivated. Data were collected by using the Demographic Information Form, the self-efficacy for Parenting Task Index-Toddler Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Parent Attitude Scale and the Brief Infant-Toddler Social & Emotional Assessment. Data were collected before the start of the program, immediately after its completion and three months afterwards.ResultsIt was found that, at the end of the program and after the following three months, the self-efficacy, self-esteem and democratic attitude scores of the experimental group mothers and the competency scores of their children had significantly increased compared to their pre-program scores. The problem domain scores of their children had decreased and a statistically significant difference was detected in favor of the experimental group. In both the experimental and the control group, a weak negative correlation was found between the self-efficacy and democratic attitude scores of the mothers and the problem domain scores of their children.ConclusionThe total 12-hour program created a positive change, even among the mothers with low self-efficacy, low self-esteem and low education and income levels who had problematic children. Therefore, healthcare professionals may find it beneficial to offer this program to all mothers having 2- and 3-year-old children.     

Satisfaction with Surrogate Mothering

Abstract

Seventeen surrogate mothers were interviewed regarding their experiences and satisfaction with the process for this study. All had given birth to one or more children, and five had been a surrogate morethan once. All described their relationshipswith thecouple asbeing the key factor in their satisfaction. Other relationships identified as very importantincludedtheirsignificantother, children, friends, extendedfami-ly, and thesurrogacyprogram director. Fourfactorswerefoundtooverlap these relationships: Motivation, type of fertilization, health, and cultural factors. Arelational model is presentedwith implicationsfor socialwork practice.