Abstract
Background
Previous studies linking violence exposure to adverse child behavior have typically relied on parental report of child symptoms without accounting for the informant's mental well-being, despite evidence that parental mental health can influence children's mental health and the parent's report of distress symptoms.
Purpose
We assess the influence of maternal depression on the violence exposure and child distress association in a subset of the Maternal Infant Smoking Study of East Boston, a prospective birth cohort.
Methods
Mothers reported on their children's violence exposure using the Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence (ETV) and completed the Checklist of Child Distress Symptoms (CCDS). The children also completed the ETV survey and the self-report version of the CCDS. Linear regression was used to assess the influence of violence exposure on distress symptoms adjusting for potential confounders, first using parent's report of exposure and outcome and a second time using the child's self-report. The mediating effect of maternal depression on the violence and distress association was also tested.
Results
Among the 162 children ages 7 to 11, 51% were boys and 43% self-identified as Hispanic. When using child self-report, increased violence exposure was significantly associated with a broader range of distress symptoms (numbness, arousal, intrusion, avoidance subscales) compared to parent reported findings, which were only significantly related to the intrusion and avoidance subscales. Moreover, a significant mediation effect of maternal depression on the violence and distress association was noted only when mother's report of exposure and outcome was used.
Conclusion
Considering both parent and child self-report of violence is necessary to obtain a complete picture of violence exposure because parents and children may be offering different, although equally valid information. The influence of maternal depressive symptoms on preadolescent's distress symptoms may be attributed to reporting bias as opposed to more direct effects; thus, the parent's psychological functioning should be taken into consideration when relying on parental report of the child's psychological functioning.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
United Nations. World Report on Violence Against Children 2006.
Thomson CC, Roberts K, Curran A, Ryan L, Wright RJ. Caretaker–Child concordance for child's exposure to violence in a preadolescent inner-city population. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2002;156(8):818–23.
Margolin G, Gordis EB. The effects of family and community violence on children. Annu Rev Psychol. 2000;51:445–79.
Osofsky J, Wewers S, Hann D, Fick A. Chronic community violence: what is happening to our children? Psychiatry. 1993;56:36–45.
Sheehan K, DiCara J, LeBaily S, Christoffel K. Children's exposure to violence in an urban setting. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1997;151:502–4.
Schubiner H, Scott R, Tzelepis A. Exposure to violence among inner-city youth. J Adolesc Health. 1993;14(3):214–9.
Rosenthal BS, Wilson WC. The association of ecological variables and psychological distress with exposure to community violence among adolescents. Adolescence. 2003;38(151):459–79.
Taylor L, Zuckerman B, Harik V, Groves B. Exposure to violence among inner city parents and young children. Am J Dis Child. 1992;146:487.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Children's exposure to violence: a comprehensive national survey 2009 Contract No.: NCJ 227744.
Wright RJ. Health effects of socially toxic neighborhoods: the violence and urban asthma paradigm. Clin Chest Med. 2006;27(3):413–21.
Freeman LN, Mokros H, Poznanski EO. Violent events reported by normal urban school-aged children: characteristics and depression correlates. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1993;32(2):419–23.
Campbell C, Schwarz DF. Prevalence and impact of exposure to interpersonal violence among suburban and urban middle school students. Pediatrics. 1996;98(3 Pt 1):396–402.
Schwab-Stone M, Chen C, Greenberger E, Silver D, Lichtman J, Voyce C. No safe haven. II: the effects of violence exposure on urban youth. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1999;38(4):359–67.
Holt S, Buckley H, Whelan S. The impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and young people: a review of the literature. Child Abuse Negl. 2008;32(8):797–810.
Ruchkin V, Henrich CC, Jones SM, Vermeiren R, Schwab-Stone M. Violence exposure and psychopathology in urban youth: the mediating role of posttraumatic stress. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2007;35(4):578–93.
Suglia SF, Ryan L, Laden F, Dockery DW, Wright RJ. Violence exposure, a chronic psychosocial stressor, and childhood lung function. Psychosom Med. 2008;70(2):160–9.
Aisenberg E, Trickett PK, Mennen FE, Saltzman W, Zayas LH. Maternal depression and adolescent behavior problems: an examination of mediation among immigrant Latino mothers and their adolescent children exposed to community violence. J Interpers Violence. 2007;22(10):1227–49.
Howard DE, Cross SI, Li X, Huang W. Parent–Youth concordance regarding violence exposure: relationship to youth psychosocial functioning. J Adolesc Health. 1999;25(6):396–406.
Achenbach TM, McConaughy SH, Howell CT. Child/Adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychol Bull. 1987;101(2):213–32.
Boyle MH, Pickles AR. Influence of maternal depressive symptoms on ratings of childhood behavior. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1997;25(5):399–412.
Mulhern RK, Fairclough DL, Smith B, Douglas SM. Maternal depression, assessment methods, and physical symptoms affect estimates of depressive symptomatology among children with cancer. J Pediatr Psychol. 1992;17(3):313–26.
Goodman SH, Gotlib IH. Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: a developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission. Psychol Rev. 1999;106(3):458–90.
Field T, Diego M, Hernandez-Reif M. Prenatal depression effects on the fetus and newborn: a review. Infant Behav Dev. 2006;29(3):445–55.
Smith P, Perrin S, Yule W, Rabe-Hesketh S. War exposure and maternal reactions in the psychological adjustment of children from Bosnia-Hercegovina. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2001;42(3):395–404.
Crittendon P. Family and dyadic patterns of functioning in maltreating families. In: Brown K, Davies C, Stratton P, editors. Early prediction and prevention of child abuse. New York: John wiley & Sons; 1988. p. 161–89.
Clark C, Ryan L, Kawachi I, Canner MJ, Berkman L, Wright RJ. Witnessing community violence in residential neighborhoods: a mental health hazard for urban women. J Urban Health. 2007 Oct 27.
Hanrahan JP, Tager IB, Segal MR, Tosteson TD, Castile RG, Van Vunakis H, et al. The effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on early infant lung function. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1992;145(5):1129–35.
Richters JE, Martinez P. The NIMH, community violence project: I. Children as victims of and witnesses to violence. Psychiatry. 1993;56(1):7–21.
Selner-O'Hagan MB, Kindlon DJ, Buka SL, Raudenbush SW, Earls FJ. Assessing exposure to violence in urban youth. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1998;39(2):215–24.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Washington, 1987.
Hurt H, Malmud E, Brodsky NL, Giannetta J. Exposure to violence: psychological and academic correlates in child witnesses. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155(12):1351–6.
Martinez P, Richters JE. The NIMH community violence project: II. Children's distress symptoms associated with violence exposure. Psychiatry. 1993;56(1):22–35.
Howard DE, Feigelman S, Li X, Cross S, Rachuba L. The relationship among violence victimization, witnessing violence, and youth distress. J Adolesc Health. 2002;31(6):455–62.
Derogatis L, Spencer P. Administration and procedures: BSI Manual-I. 1982.
Derogatis LR, Melisaratos N. The Brief Symptom Inventory: an introductory report. Psychol Med. 1983;13(3):595–605.
Skilbeck WM, Acosta FX, Yamamoto J, Evans LA. Self-reported psychiatric symptoms among black, Hispanic, and white outpatients. J Clin Psychol. 1984;40(5):1184–9.
Kindlon D, Wright B, Raudenbush S, Earls F. The measurement of children's exposure to violence: a rasch analysis. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res. 1996;6:187–94.
Suglia SF, Ryan L, Wright RJ. Creation of a community violence exposure scale: accounting for what, who, where, and how often. J Trauma Stress. 2008;21(5):479–86.
Brennan R, Molnar B, Earls F. Refining the measurement of exposure to violence (ETV) in urban youth. J Community Psychol. 2007;35(5):603–18.
Kuo M, Mohler B, Raudenbush SL, Earls FJ. Assessing exposure to violence using multiple informants: application of hierarchical linear model. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000;41(8):1049–56.
Preacher KJ, Hayes AF. Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behav Res Methods. 2008;40(3):879–91.
Shahinfar A, Fox NA, Leavitt LA. Preschool children's exposure to violence: relation of behavior problems to parent and child reports. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2000;70(1):115–25.
Shemesh E, Newcorn JH, Rockmore L, Shneider BL, Emre S, Gelb BD, et al. Comparison of parent and child reports of emotional trauma symptoms in pediatric outpatient settings. Pediatrics. 2005;115(5):e582–9.
McFarlane AC. Posttraumatic phenomena in a longitudinal study of children following a natural disaster. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1987;26(5):764–9.
Bryce JW, Walker N, Ghorayeb F, Kanj M. Life experiences, response styles and mental health among mothers and children in Beirut, Lebanon. Soc Sci Med. 1989;28(7):685–95.
Offord DR, Boyle MH, Racine Y, Szatmari P, Fleming JE, Sanford M, et al. Integrating assessment data from multiple informants. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1996;35(8):1078–85.
Acknowledgement
Data collection for this study was funded by K08 HL004187 and by a Deborah Monroe Noonan Foundation grant. During the preparation of this manuscript, Shakira Franco Suglia was supported by F31 HD049317-01 and T32 MH 073122; Rosalind J Wright was supported by R01 ES010932 and U01 HL072494.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Suglia, S.F., Ryan, L., Bellinger, D.C. et al. Children's Exposure to Violence and Distress Symptoms: Influence of Caretakers' Psychological Functioning. Int.J. Behav. Med. 18, 35–43 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-010-9090-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-010-9090-0