O-02 Impact and mental health mediation of intimate partner violence on child behaviour in Trinidad and Tobago
Author(s):
J Mottley, K Devries, P Edwards, S Rathod
Year of Presentation:
2024
Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is known to have detrimental effects on persons directly experiencing this form of abuse, and on their children. Emerging research also indicates that a parent’s experience of IPV may operate through various intermediary pathways to influence children’s well-being. However, there is still no established model to explain these underlying mechanisms. This study is one of few assessing the extent to which maternal mental health symptoms mediate the association between maternal exposure to IPV and child behavioural problems.
Methods: Using data from a 2017 population-based, crosssectional survey, we performed logistic regression to assess the impact of lifetime maternal IPV exposure on child behavioural problems (withdrawal or aggression). We used generalized structural equation modelling to test the mediation effect of both maternal depression and anxiety symptoms on the association between maternal IPV exposure and child behavioural problems.
Results: Over half (55%; 95% CI, 48.3-60.8) of mothers had ever experienced IPV and 12.5% (95% CI, 8.0-19.1) of children in the sample displayed behavioural problems as reported by their mothers. Mothers who ever experienced IPV were almost three times as likely to report their children displaying behavioural problems compared to mothers who had never experienced IPV (OR = 2.81; 95% CI, 1.08-7.33). Additionally, we found that both maternal depressive symptoms and maternal anxiety symptoms partially mediated the relationship between maternal exposure to IPV and child behavioural problems.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that the effect of maternal IPV exposure on child behavioural problems is mediated by maternal depression and anxiety symptoms. These findings can be used to design future, longitudinal studies on the effects of IPV and can help to inform interventuions aimed at improving both parent and child well-being in the Caribbean, where IPV is highly prevalent and where no similar analysis has been performed to date.