Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive social issue with broad physical and mental health implications. Although 35%–56% of women report IPV victimization with more than one violent partner, ...few studies have identified factors that increase the risk of experiencing IPV across multiple partners (i.e., IPV reengagement). In the current study, multilevel modeling was used to examine the roles of trauma exposure, mental health, and sociodemographic factors in the risk for reengagement in a sample of women (N = 120) with IPV victimization. Participants were drawn from a randomized control trial of an intervention for mothers who had experienced IPV. The results revealed that more psychological but less sexual IPV was associated with increased reengagement. Higher degrees of posttraumatic reexperiencing symptoms were associated with less reengagement. Depressive symptoms were also significantly associated with reengagement such that lower levels of positive affect and increased somatic symptoms were associated with increased reengagement. Higher income levels and less housing instability were associated with more reengagement, βrange = −.13–.16. Finally, compared to the control condition, participation in the intervention program was significantly associated with lower levels of reengagement at 8‐year follow‐up, β = −.75, p = .001. These findings suggest that it is not what happened (i.e., experiences of abuse) but rather a woman's posttraumatic experience (i.e., posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms) that creates risk for reengagement. The findings support the long‐term effectiveness of a brief intervention in reducing reengagement.
We examined the effectiveness of the Qungasvik (Tools for Life) intervention in enhancing protective factors as a universal suicide and alcohol prevention strategy for young people ages 12−18 living ...in highly affected rural Alaska Native communities. Four communities were assigned to immediate intervention or to a dynamic wait list. Outcomes were analyzed for 239 young people at four time points over two years of community intervention. Outcomes assessed two ultimate variable protective factors buffering suicide and alcohol risk, and three intermediate variable protective factors at the individual, family, and community level. Dose dependent intervention effects were associated with growth in ultimate but not intermediate variables. This evaluation of the Qungasvik intervention provides support for the effectiveness of its Indigenous strategies for suicide and alcohol misuse prevention in this rural Alaska Native setting. Though findings did not provide support for a theory of change where growth in ultimate variables is occasioned through effects on intermediate variables, research designs focused on young people who enter intervention at lower levels of preexisting protection hold promise for better understanding of intervention change processes. The Qungasvik intervention is responsive to an acute public health need for effective rural Alaska Native suicide and alcohol risk prevention strategies.
Highlights
The Qungasvik intervention promotes protective factors to prevent suicide and alcohol misuse.
We examined the effectiveness of Qungasvik in a dynamic wait‐listed community‐level trial.
Intervention was associated with growth in ultimate variables protective from suicide and alcohol.
This provides an evidence base for a rural Alaska Native suicide and alcohol prevention strategy.
Findings support an Indigenous intervention strategy using a protective factor framework.
Runaway youth may experience a myriad of challenges associated with significant risks to health and well‐being. To examine the prevalence and correlates of running away from home among US youth. ...Annual US nationally representative samples of 8th and 10th graders between 2005 and 2017 from the Monitoring the Future study. Self‐reports of nationally representative samples of 8th and 10th graders in the US Annual survey data from 8th and 10th graders spanning 2005–2017, n = 116,520. The primary outcome of this study, running away from home in the past 12 months, was examined using multivariable weighted logistic regression. Predictor measures included: parent and peer relationships, school factors (e.g., grade point average GPA), internalizing symptoms, externalizing behavior, and substance use (alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes). Demographic measures in the model were grade level (8th or 10th), gender (boys or girls), parent education, and race/ethnicity. The annual prevalence of running away decreased significantly from 8.3% in 2005 to 6.1% in 2017. Demographically, running away from home was significantly lower among boys compared with girls. Multivariable logistic regression model results revealed that higher levels of parental involvement, GPA, and self‐esteem are all significantly related to lower odds of running away from home. Having peers who drop out of school, going on more date nights, self‐derogation, interpersonal aggression, sensation seeking, theft, and property damage, as well as past 12‐month alcohol use, past 12‐month marijuana use, and past 30‐day cigarette use were all associated with higher odds of running away from home. Annual prevalence of running away from home has been decreasing, but still affects a large number of teens. Running away is associated with numerous challenges across social, behavioral, and health domains that can further negatively impact the health and well‐being of this already vulnerable population.
Objective
The current study used the family stress model to test the mechanisms by which economic insecurity contributes to mothers' and fathers' mental health and couples' relationship functioning.
...Background
Although low household income has been a focus of poverty research, material hardship—defined as everyday challenges related to making ends meet including difficulties paying for housing, utilities, food, or medical care—is common among American families.
Methods
Participants were from the Building Strong Families project. Couples were racially diverse (43.52% Black; 28.88% Latinx; 17.29% White; 10.31% Other) and living with low income (N = 2794). Economic insecurity included income poverty and material hardship. Bayesian mediation analysis was employed, taking advantage of the prior evidence base of the family stress model.
Results
Material hardship, but not income poverty, predicted higher levels of both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms. Only paternal depressive symptoms were linked with higher levels of destructive interparental conflict (i.e., moderate verbal aggression couples use that could be harmful to the partner relationship). Mediation analysis confirmed that material hardship operated primarily through paternal depressive symptoms in its association with destructive interparental conflict.
Conclusion
The economic stress of meeting the daily material needs of the family sets the stage for parental mental health problems that carry over to destructive interparental conflict, especially through paternal depressive symptoms.
Implications
Family‐strengthening programs may want to consider interventions to address material hardship (e.g., comprehensive needs assessments, connections to community‐based resources, parents' employment training) as part of their efforts to address parental mental health and couples' destructive conflict behaviors.
A robust research literature links parental spanking with negative behavioral outcomes for children, however, it remains unclear whether conditions in the community may moderate the associations ...between spanking and behavior problems in early childhood. In the current study, we examined whether community violence exposure moderated the associations of maternal spanking with externalizing and internalizing behavior problems of young children. The sample used in this study was urban families and their children ages 3–5 (n = 2,472). We used fixed effects regression models, which yield stronger statistical control for baseline behavior problems, selection bias, and omitted variables bias. Mother's spanking was associated with elevated levels of both externalizing (β = .037, p < .001) and internalizing (β = .016, p < .001) behavior problems. Community violence exposure also predicted higher levels of externalizing (β = .071, p < .01) and internalizing (β = .043, p < .05) behavior problems. Community violence exposure did not moderate the associations between maternal spanking and behavior problems. Professionals working with families should promote the use of nonphysical disciplinary practices, regardless of the level of violence and crime in the community in which the family resides.
Abstract Exposure to childhood adversity has an impact on adult mental health, increasing the risk for depression and suicide. Associations between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and several ...adult mental and behavioral health outcomes are well documented in the literature, establishing the need for prevention. The current study analyzes the relationship between an expanded ACE score that includes being spanked as a child and adult mental health outcomes by examining each ACE separately to determine the contribution of each ACE. Data were drawn from Wave II of the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study, consisting of 7465 adult members of Kaiser Permanente in southern California. Dichotomous variables corresponding to each of the 11 ACE categories were created, with ACE score ranging from 0 to 11 corresponding to the total number of ACEs experienced. Multiple logistic regression modeling was used to examine the relationship between ACEs and adult mental health outcomes adjusting for sociodemographic covariates. Results indicated a graded dose-response relationship between the expanded ACE score and the likelihood of moderate to heavy drinking, drug use, depressed affect, and suicide attempts in adulthood. In the adjusted models, being spanked as a child was significantly associated with all self-reported mental health outcomes. Over 80% of the sample reported exposure to at least one ACE, signifying the potential to capture experiences not previously considered by traditional ACE indices. The findings highlight the importance of examining both cumulative ACE scores and individual ACEs on adult health outcomes to better understand key risk and protective factors for future prevention efforts.
This study examined the associations of 11 discipline techniques with children's aggressive and anxious behaviors in an international sample of mothers and children from 6 countries and determined ...whether any significant associations were moderated by mothers' and children's perceived normativeness of the techniques. Participants included 292 mothers and their 8-to 12-year-old children living in China, India, Italy, Kenya, Philippines, and Thailand. Parallel multilevel and fixed effects models revealed that mothers' use of corporal punishment, expressing disappointment, and yelling were significantly related to more child aggression symptoms, whereas giving a time-out, using corporal punishment, expressing disappointment, and shaming were significantly related to greater child anxiety symptoms. Some moderation of these associations was found for children's perceptions of normativeness.
Research that simultaneously examines the relationship of multiple types of family and community violence with adolescent outcomes is limited in the previous research literature, particularly in ...Latin America. This study examines the relationship of adolescent exposure to family and community violence—parental use of corporal punishment, violence in the community, intimate partner physical aggression—with eight subscales of the Youth Self Report among a Chilean sample of 593 adolescent-mother pairs. Results from multilevel models indicated a positive association between adolescent exposure to violence in the family and community, and a wide range of behavior problem outcomes, in particular, aggression. With growing evidence concerning the detrimental effect of violence on adolescent well-being, these findings emphasize the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the various kinds of violence adolescents are exposed to within the family and community and the concomitant need to reduce multiple forms of violence.
Nearly one third of children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience spanking. Studies from North America suggest that spanking is associated with heightened risk of ...physical abuse. However, the link between spanking and physical abuse in the international context remains understudied.
To examine the association between caregivers' spanking and physical abuse of young children in LMICs, and to estimate the extent to which physical abuse might be reduced if spanking were eliminated.
We used nationally representative data from 156,166 1- to 4-year-old children in 56 LMICs from the fourth and fifth rounds of UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys.
A nationally weighted multilevel logistic regression model examined the association between spanking and physical abuse. We calculated predicted probabilities of physical abuse, which we present using natural frequencies.
Spanking was associated with higher odds of physical abuse (OR = 5.74, p < .001). The predicted probability of physical abuse decreased by 14% comparing children who were spanked (22%) and who were not spanked (8%). When our estimates were translated to a hypothetical sample of 100 children using a natural frequency approach, 32 children were spanked; of those, seven experienced physical abuse. The elimination of spanking would result in four fewer children who were exposed to physical abuse. In relation to the population of abused children, estimates suggest that physical abuse could reduce by up to 33% if spanking were eliminated.
Results support the UN Sustainable Development Goals Target 16.2 that calls for eliminating all forms of violence against children. Child welfare advocates should discourage caregivers from using spanking, in order to prevent physical abuse.
The cultural normativeness perspective argues that parenting practices such as spanking are more beneficial for children when they occur in cultural groups within which they are normative. Research ...on this issue in the United States has focused on race as a marker of culture, and findings have been mixed. The present study presents meta-analyses of five studies that reported effect sizes separately for White (n = 11,814) and Black (n = 3,065) American children (5 to 14 years of age). Mean weighted effect sizes for both groups indicated statistically significant associations with detrimental outcomes; they were not statistically significantly different from one another. Contrary to the cultural normativeness perspective, these results demonstrate that spanking is similarly associated with detrimental outcomes for White and Black children in the United States.
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