Violence and Gender

Early childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (EIPV) is a serious social and public health matter. Parents underestimate EIPV in comparison to their own victimization of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, few studies have attempted to compare the differences between the child's EIPV and the IPV victimization from the mothers' perspective and document the associated explanatory factors. Consequently, this study was conducted on a representative sample of 2046 children aged 6 months to 8 years in Quebec (Canada) to estimate the prevalence of EIPV and mother's awareness of EIPV over the past 12 months and to investigate factors that are associated with mother's awareness of EIPV. Findings revealed that 11.1% of young children were exposed to at least one form of IPV. However, that proportion decreases to 5.9% when the mother is asked whether the child is aware or a witness of the violence. Regression analyses revealed that child's younger age, mother's depressive symptoms, being a single parent, and the presence of adults' violent behaviors toward children were significantly associated with the mother's higher perceived awareness of EIPV. While some of these findings are consistent with previous studies, others such as living in a single-parent family open the door to different interpretations, including the presence of increased postseparation violence. As EIPV is increasingly recognized as affecting children regardless of their awareness of violent events, further studies are needed to better understand the context facilitating parental recognition of this exposure.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) includes a range of activities inflicted upon a person by a current or former intimate partner. The abuse is often recurrent and patterned, intended at establishing power and control. IPV incidence rates are highest during young adulthood, the dynamics of which are made more complex during and immediately following a pregnancy (the perinatal period). This study focuses on women's perceptions of perinatal IPV. Data come from a qualitative study stemming from a community-based longitudinal project. Participants (n = 301) were screened for lifetime incidence of IPV, and those screening positive (n = 64) were asked to participate in a follow-up interview. Forty women agreed to an interview, and 25 of those described perinatal IPV. Within this subsample, the women were asked to recall the abuse they experienced during and after pregnancy, how it impacted their health and ability to parent, as well as the impacts they believed that the abuse had on their children. Their findings indicate that perinatal IPV is pervasive and consequential. A range of abuse trajectories occurred which left the women feeling demoralized as they entered parenthood. After the birth of their children, the women often shouldered disproportionate caretaking responsibilities in addition to navigating their abusers' ongoing control tactics. While they reported various forms of IPV and recognized that their children had been exposed to it, the women did not often exhibit a clear understanding of how their own victimization impacted their children, prenatally or upon birth. More recognition came in retrospect for those with older children. Understanding the nature of perinatal IPV is critical to identifying early childhood exposure, as well as effectively working with adult survivors to mitigate it.

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is a well-established metric of cumulative risk associated with later development of behavioral and mental health difficulties. Much of the literature has relied solely on a simple summed score of exposure to different types of ACEs to operationalize the complex construct of cumulative risk, despite a lack of evidence documenting that all ACEs exert an equivalent impact on risk for a particular outcome. To address this issue and examine associations between ACEs and externalizing problems, the present study aimed to (1) measure associations between each individual ACE indicator and three adolescent and adult externalizing outcomes, (2) identify unique patterns of exposure to ACEs, and (3) examine differences in the extent to which unique ACE exposure patterns influence externalizing problems. Data came from a sample of 4185 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health (Add Health). Each outcome was first regressed onto all individual ACE indicators. The authors then entered all ACE indicators into a latent class analysis (LCA), fitting models with one to four classes. After identifying the best-fitting model, externalizing outcomes were regressed onto the latent classes while adjusting for demographics. Initial regression analyses identified several individual ACE indicators that uniquely predicted increased odds of reporting externalizing problems after adjusting for other ACEs exposure. Using LCA, the authors identified three distinct ACE classes: (1) Low ACEs (77%), (2) Moderate Multiple ACEs (11%), and (3) Hostile Maltreatment (12%). Compared to the Low ACEs Class, the other two classes were associated with higher levels of externalizing problems overall, with the Moderate Multiple ACEs Class exhibiting the greatest risk of endorsing externalizing outcomes during adolescence and adulthood. Findings generally supported the hypothesis that exposure to multiple different types of ACEs captures a sizable portion of risk; however, certain ACE indicators were also identified as having particularly close links to externalizing problems in adolescence and young adulthood. The present study highlights the importance of considering the operationalization of exposure to ACEs based on both cumulative risk and unique patterns of exposure. Implications for enhanced assessment of individual risk for externalizing problems are discussed.