title: Maternal Child Sexual Abuse Is Associated With Lower Maternal Warmth Toward Daughters but Not Sons.
abstract: Mothers with a history of child sexual abuse report less warmth toward their children, but whether this association differs by child gender is unknown. We examined the association of maternal child sexual abuse and warmth across child gender, accounting for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and child physical abuse. We verbally administered self-report measures to a cross-sectional sample of 154 mothers with a child between 8 and 12 years old. Eighty-five mothers based warmth responses on a son, and 69 on a daughter. We conducted a hierarchical multiple regression, including child gender, maternal child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and 4 two-way interaction terms with child gender. Maternal depression predicted decreased warmth, regardless of child gender, and maternal child sexual abuse predicted decreased warmth, but only toward daughters. Given previous research suggesting that maternal warmth predicts child well-being, the current finding may represent an important avenue of intergenerational transmission of risk in girls.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Georgia Southern University , Statesboro , Georgia.
authors.forename: Dorthie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta , Georgia.
authors.forename: Ye Ji
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta , Georgia.
authors.forename: L Alexander
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Vance
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta , Georgia.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta , Georgia.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Emory University School of Medicine , Atlanta , Georgia.|c Atlanta VA Medical Center , Decatur , Georgia.
authors.forename: Bekh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bradley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Child sexual abuse; gender; intergenerational risk; maternal depression; parenting