title: Children exposed to intimate partner violence: Identifying differential effects of family environment on children's trauma and psychopathology symptoms through regression mixture models.
abstract: The majority of analytic approaches aimed at understanding the influence of environmental context on children's socioemotional adjustment assume comparable effects of contextual risk and protective factors for all children. Using self-reported data from 289 maternal caregiver-child dyads, we examined the degree to which there are differential effects of severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure, yearly household income, and number of children in the family on posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and psychopathology symptoms (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems) among school-age children between the ages of 7-12 years. A regression mixture model identified three latent classes that were primarily distinguished by differential effects of IPV exposure severity on PTS and psychopathology symptoms: (1) asymptomatic with low sensitivity to environmental factors (66% of children), (2) maladjusted with moderate sensitivity (24%), and (3) highly maladjusted with high sensitivity (10%). Children with mothers who had higher levels of education were more likely to be in the maladjusted with moderate sensitivity group than the asymptomatic with low sensitivity group. Latino children were less likely to be in both maladjusted groups compared to the asymptomatic group. Overall, the findings suggest differential effects of family environmental factors on PTS and psychopathology symptoms among children exposed to IPV. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Academic Learning Commons, 1000 Floyd Avenue, Third Floor, P.O. Box 842027, Richmond, VA 23284-2027, United States. Electronic address: sem9883@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shelby Elaine
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Academic Learning Commons, 1000 Floyd Avenue, Third Floor, P.O. Box 842027, Richmond, VA 23284-2027, United States.
authors.forename: Sunny
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 806 W. Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23284, United States.
authors.forename: Rosalie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corona
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Academic Learning Commons, 1000 Floyd Avenue, Third Floor, P.O. Box 842027, Richmond, VA 23284-2027, United States.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maternick
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Michigan, 2265 East Hall 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, United States.
authors.forename: Sandra A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Graham-Bermann
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Craig Hall, 2148 S. High St., Denver, CO 80208, United States.
authors.forename: Frank R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Ascione
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Craig Hall, 2148 S. High St., Denver, CO 80208, United States.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Herbert Williams
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D000069581:Exposure to Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Adjustment; Children; Intimate partner violence; Resilience