Intimate Partner Violence Victimization, Maternal harsh discipline, and the Mediating Impact of care-giving helplessness and parental control

The current study involved a sample of 142 mothers subjected to intimate partner violence (IPV). The study examined the relationship between trauma symptoms and frequency of harsh discipline and tested the indirect effects of perceived caregiving helplessness and parental control of children’s behavior on this relationship. Using the newly developed Caregiving Helplessness Questionnaire to measure caregiving helplessness we identified potential processes by which trauma symptoms may be associated with the frequency of harsh discipline. Taken together, perceived caregiving helplessness and lack of parental control of children’s behavior mediated the effect of trauma symptoms on harsh discipline. Both lack of perceived parental control and caregiving helplessness had specific indirect effects on the relationship between trauma symptoms and the frequency of harsh discipline.