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Understanding How Intimate Partner Violence Impacts School Age Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problem Behaviors: a Secondary Analysis of Hawaii Healthy Start Program Evaluation Data

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Abstract

We examined the role of maternal depression and parenting stress in the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and child internalizing and externalizing problems, and explored whether child gender modified these pathways. This secondary analysis used data from the Hawaii Healthy Start Program. Logistic regression models examined the associations between IPV in 1st grade and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades. Mediation models used bootstrapping methodology and stratified models examined effect modification. Adjusted models with 214 mothers demonstrated associations between IPV and internalizing (adjusted odds ratios (aOR) = 2.62; 95 % CI 1.11, 6.21) and externalizing (aOR = 4.16; 95 % CI 1.55, 11.19) behaviors. The association with externalizing behaviors was mediated by maternal depression and parenting stress, while internalizing behaviors was mediated by depression only. Stratified models found the association between IPV and externalizing behaviors was significant for girls only. Our results support the importance of multicomponent maternal IPV interventions.

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Acknowledgments

Dr Bair-Merritt is funded by a Career Development Award (K23HD057180) sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The parent study, evaluation of the Hawaii Healthy Start Program, was supported in part by the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (R40MC00029 (formerly MCJ 240637) and R40 MC 00123 (formerly MCJ 240838); The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (18303); The Annie E. Casey Foundation (94–4041); The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (93–6051, 94–7957, 97–8058, and 98–3448); the Hawaii State Department of Health (99-29-J); and the National Institute of Mental Health, Epidemiological Center for Early Risk Behaviors, P30MH38725.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, 88 East Newton Street, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Megan H. Bair-Merritt

  2. Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Sharon R. Ghazarian

  3. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Lori Burrell, Sarah Shea Crowne, Elizabeth McFarlane & Anne K. Duggan

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  1. Megan H. Bair-Merritt
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  2. Sharon R. Ghazarian
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  3. Lori Burrell
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  5. Elizabeth McFarlane
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  6. Anne K. Duggan
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Correspondence to Megan H. Bair-Merritt.

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Bair-Merritt, M.H., Ghazarian, S.R., Burrell, L. et al. Understanding How Intimate Partner Violence Impacts School Age Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problem Behaviors: a Secondary Analysis of Hawaii Healthy Start Program Evaluation Data. Journ Child Adol Trauma 8, 245–251 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-015-0066-8

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