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The Influence of Maternal History of Abuse on Parenting Knowledge and Behavior
Author(s) -
Bert Shan Carothers,
Guner Bella Mironovna,
Lanzi Robin Gaines
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00545.x
Subject(s) - physical abuse , psychology , psychological abuse , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , child abuse , injury prevention , poison control , medicine , environmental health
This study examined the intergenerational transmission of abuse among a sample of 681 teen, adult low‐resource, and adult high‐resource first‐time mothers. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 36 years, with a mean of 20 years. Exposure to childhood emotional and to physical abuse were associated with 6‐month parenting behavior but not with parenting knowledge. Teen mothers, as opposed to adult mothers, had higher mean scores for exposure to childhood emotional and physical abuse. Adult high‐resource mothers reported lower mean scores on each abuse outcome than both teen and adult low‐resource mothers. For the total sample of mothers, as past exposure to emotional and physical abuse increased, maternal responsivity decreased and opinions toward, and propensities for, abusive behavior increased.