Child Maltreatment History in Teen Mothers and Parent-Child Risk Processes for Offspring Conduct Problems

Introduction: Preventive interventions for child maltreatment target family risk factors associated with child abuse and neglect, such as disrupted caregiving and quality of parent-child relationship, and child problem behavior (Stith et al., 2009). However, limited research has examined the impact of parents’ child maltreatment history on these risk factors over time. Maternal history of child maltreatment is associated with hostile parenting (Kim et al., 2010) and emotional intimacy difficulties in the parent-child relationship (Wright et al., 2012). Considering that disrupted attachment and parental hostility predict the development of child conduct problems, maternal child maltreatment history may have indirect effects on later child adjustment via these parent-child processes. This study examines whether a history of child maltreatment in adolescent mothers has an impact on conduct problems in school-aged children, through its effects on attachment in infancy and maternal hostility in preschool. We also examine whether mothers’ experience of sexual abuse only, or the cumulative effects of sexual and physical abuse, most strongly predicts parenting and child outcomes. 

Methods: Participants included 111 adolescent mothers (M age = 17.3 years) and their children. Mothers reported on their child maltreatment history during an at-home interview when their child was aged 1 year. Attachment security at age 1 year was assessed using the Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al., 1978), and maternal hostility at age 4.5 years was measured via direct observations of parenting during parent-child interaction tasks. Conduct problems in Grade 3 were based on maternal reports.

Results: Forty-one percent of mothers reported a history of child abuse (sexual abuse only = 13%, physical abuse only = 13%, sexual AND physical abuse = 15%). Results from mediation analysis demonstrated significant indirect effects of sexual AND physical abuse history on conduct problems. That is, in the first path, sexual AND physical abuse history was associated with insecure attachment, which in turn was associated with higher levels of conduct problems. In the second path, sexual AND physical abuse history was associated with hostile parenting, which in turn was positively associated with conduct problems. Attachment security and hostile parenting were not significantly associated.

Conclusions: Our results support a model linking child maltreatment history in adolescent mothers to risk for conduct problems in school-aged children, through distinct parent-child processes in infancy and preschool. Promoting secure attachment and warm parenting might be important intervention goals for maltreatment prevention programs involving mothers with a history of child abuse.