The impact of domestic violence on mothers' prenatal representations of their infants

This study examined the relationship between domestic violence during pregnancy and mothers' prenatal representations of their infants and themselves as mothers. Two hundred and six women were recruited from the community and interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy. Forty‐four percent of women reported experiencing domestic violence during the current pregnancy, while 56% reported no domestic violence during the pregnancy. Maternal representations were assessed using the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI; Zeanah, Benoit, Hirshberg, Barton, & Regan, 1994). Multiple analysis of variance (MANCOVA) and χ² analyses revealed that women who experienced domestic violence had significantly more negative representations of their infants and themselves as mothers and were significantly more likely to be classified as insecurely attached (either Disengaged or Distorted) than women who had not experienced domestic violence. These results, along with several excerpts from battered women's interviews, highlight the importance of domestic violence as a risk factor for maternal and infant well being. These findings and their clinical implications are discussed in light of attachment theory. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND INFANT SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF MATERNAL TRAUMA SYMPTOMS

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on infant regulatory difficulties at 3 months of age and infant socioemotional problems at 12 months of age. Maternal trauma symptoms were explored as potential moderators of these associations. Participants included 120 primarily low‐income, ethnically diverse women and their infants. Results revealed that infants whose mothers experienced IPV during pregnancy did not have significantly more regulatory difficulties at 3 months than did infants whose mothers did not experience prenatal IPV. However, infants whose mothers experienced IPV during the first year after birth displayed significantly more socioemotional problems at 12 months, as evidenced by both maternal report and observational data. Furthermore, maternal posttraumatic stress avoidance symptoms served as a moderator of the association between prenatal IPV and infant regulatory difficulties at 3 months whereas maternal posttraumatic stress hyperarousal and reexperiencing symptoms served as moderators of the association between IPV during the first year after birth and infant socioemotional problems at 12 months. The findings highlight the detrimental impact that IPV can have on very young children and the importance of maternal trauma symptoms as a context for understanding the effect of IPV on young children's functioning.     

VARIATIONS IN HELP-SEEKING, BATTERED WOMEN'S RELATIONSHIP COURSE, EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING, AND EXPERIENCES OF ABUSE OVER TIME

Despite assumptions that leaving the batterer offers the best chance for improvement in battered women's lives, few studies provide conclusive data on this issue. Although many women eventually reunite with partners, also unexamined is the influence of relationship course over time. Five waves of data from 206 low-income, largely Black, help-seeking battered women revealed minimal differences in emotional well-being either initially or over time for women following different relationship trajectories during the course of 1 year. Consistency in relationship status (completely apart, completely together) tended to be associated with sharper drops in violence during the year; abuse tended to decrease most slowly among women who were in and out of their relationship over time. Findings suggest that the act of leaving is not necessarily associated with improvements for victims—how the process of leaving occurs may be more influential. Challenging common assumptions, women remaining with partners may sometimes fare better than women who leave.     

Gender stereotypes, aggression, and computer games: an online survey of women.

Computer games were conceptualized as a potential mode of entry into computer-related employment for women. Computer games contain increasing levels of realism and violence, as well as biased gender portrayals. It has been suggested that aggressive personality characteristics attract people to aggressive video games, and that more women do not play computer games because they are socialized to be non-aggressive. To explore gender identity and aggressive personality in the context of computers, an online survey was conducted on women who played computer games and women who used the computer but did not play computer games. Women who played computer games perceived their online environments as less friendly but experienced less sexual harassment online, were more aggressive themselves, and did not differ in gender identity, degree of sex role stereotyping, or acceptance of sexual violence when compared to women who used the computer but did not play video games. Finally, computer gaming was associated with decreased participation in computer-related employment; however, women with high masculine gender identities were more likely to use computers at work.     

Prenatal views of baby and parenthood: Association with sociodemographic and pregnancy factors

The aim of the present study was to explore whether sociodemographic and pregnancy factors are associated with the content of prenatal maternal representations about the child and maternity. The study was designed as a questionnaire‐based, anonymous, cross‐sectional study. Participants were 391 pregnant women in routine follow‐up visits enrolled from 14 maternity care centers in Southwestern Finland. Measures consisted of self‐report questionnaires for background data and adjective lists (i.e., semantic differentials) regarding the mother's prenatal view of this child, herself, child's father, and own mother‐as‐mother. Of the nine background factors explored in this study, two factors had significant associations with the content of prenatal representations: a number of children under 7 years of age in the household and (b) planning of the current pregnancy. Prenatal maternal representations about the child, self, partner, and own mother were more negative in content, especially if the mother already had two to three children under 7 years of age, if this pregnancy was not planned, or both. Background factors which did not have significant associations with the content of any prenatal representations included social class, previous abortions, duration of gestation, and somatic problems in this pregnancy. The results are important considering the previous research findings on the role of prenatal representations for the quality of postnatal maternal interactive behavior with the child, intergenerational transmission of attachment security, and developmental outcome of the child later, even in school age. The factors found in this study to have significance for the content of prenatal representations are routinely asked in all maternity care practice and do not need any arrangements to be explored. The results suggest that professionals working in maternity care should pay more attention to the subgroups of pregnant women with many small children in the family and/or whose pregnancy is unplanned. Their need for support in the relationship with this particular child should be especially attended to.     

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF SOMATIC AND EMOTIONAL SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY

Using a prospective design, this study examined somatic and emotional symptoms of planned pregnancy in a sample of 162 healthy women. All women participated in a baseline (prepregnancy) interview. Seventy women became pregnant and were assessed at each trimester; the 92 nonpregnant controls were interviewed 3, 6, and 9 months after their baseline interview. All participants also completed the Anxiety and Depression subscales of the Symptom Checklist–Revised (SCL 90-R). No significant group differences were found at baseline. As expected, however, pregnant women reported significantly more instances of digestive symptoms (nausea, vomiting, heartburn), fatigue, and moodiness than nonpregnant controls. Discriminant-function analyses found that in the context of all symptom variables, nausea and fatigue were the primary distinguishing features of the first trimester. In the second and third trimester, fatigue and heartburn contributed to the distinction of pregnant and nonpregnant women. Although pregnancy precipitates many physical and psychological changes in this sample of women who had planned pregnancies, our results did not support the notion that pregnancy is either a time of significant emotional turmoil or of heightened emotional well-being.     

Sexual preference,feminism, and women's perceptions of their parents

In an attempt to clarify the relation between parental variables, sexual preference, and sex-role attitudes, three groups of women were studied: lesbian feminists, heterosexual feminists, and heterosexual traditional women. The women were asked about their perceptions of their parents when they were in high school. The groups differed more from each other with respect to their perceptions of their fathers than their mothers. The perceived attitudes of the father were much more important in differentiating lesbian feminists from heterosexuals than in differentiating heterosexual feminists from heterosexual traditionals. Both the heterosexual groups (feminist and traditionals) reported having a more affectionate and involved father who also encouraged them more in the expression of anger than the lesbian feminists reported. The results suggest women's father relationships must not be obscured in research and support Johnson's hypothesis that the father relationship is more central than the mother relationship in sex typing and especially in the specifically sexual aspects of sex typing.     

Rated helpfulness and partner-reported smoking cessation support across the pregnancy-postpartum continuum.

Support interventions have not changed smoking cessation rates significantly. The pregnancy-postpartum continuum presents a unique opportunity to examine patterns of support. Expectant couples (N = 477) were surveyed twice during pregnancy and 3 times postpartum. Partners reported positive and negative smoking-specific support; women reported the helpfulness of partner support. Linear trends suggest that women viewed support as more helpful during pregnancy than during postpartum. Partners' provision of positive support across the continuum depended on their smoking; provision of negative support depended on women's smoking. Partners who smoked provided lower levels of both positive and negative support, especially postpartum. Women who smoked throughout the pregnancy perceived their partner's negative support as helpful. Implications are that partners who smoke may need help staying engaged in the support process. Partners may provide negative support in response to women's smoking cues. Women who are struggling with cessation may not view negative support as negative.     

Toward A Typology Of Abusive Women: Differences Between Partner-Only And Generally Violent Women In The Use Of Violence

Based on previous typologies of domestically violent men ( Holtzworth-Munroe & Stuart, 1994 ), women who were referred to a treatment agency for abusive behavior  ( N = 52)  were categorized into two groups based on the breadth of their use of violence: Partner-Only (PO) and Generally Violent (GV). PO women were hypothesized to use reactive violence, for example, out of fear or in self-defense, whereas GV women were hypothesized to use instrumental violence, that is, in order to exert control. Self-defense was assessed in three different ways and convergent validity was demonstrated for these three new measures. GV women reported using instrumental violence more than PO women, in a variety of situations. GV women tended to report more traumatic symptoms than PO women, although they did not experience significantly more abuse. GV women were more likely to witness their mothers' physical aggression. Thus, we theorize that GV women have been socialized to believe that it is acceptable for women to use violence to resolve conflict. Trauma history and violent socialization should be addressed clinically.     

Ethnicity and Social Support During Pregnancy

Data from two multi-ethnic prospective studies of African American, Latina, and non-Hispanic White pregnant women were used to examine the influence of contextual factors on social support processes during pregnancy. Multiple types of support (perceived support, received support, support satisfaction, network support) and sources of support (baby's father, family, friends) were assessed. The role of ethnicity in social support was examined after controlling for the contribution of related contextual factors (SES, marital status, age, parity, employment) to these processes. The impact of ethnicity and related contextual factors differed across sources of social support. Ethnic differences in support from family and friends, but not from the baby's father, emerged. However, marital status was a consistent predictor of support from the baby's father, and SES was a consistent predictor of support from friends. Overall, the findings of two studies suggest that although ethnicity is associated with support from friends and family, other contextual factors, such as marital status and SES, influence support processes during pregnancy.     

PRECURSORS AND CORRELATES OF WOMEN'S VIOLENCE: CHILD ABUSE TRAUMATIZATION, VICTIMIZATION OF WOMEN, AVOIDANCE COPING, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

Path modeling assessed (a) the influence of child abuse traumatization on women's use of violence and their experiences of being victimized, (b) the association of these three variables to depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and (c) the indirect pathways from women using violence and their being victimized to psychological symptoms through avoidance coping. Among 108 primarily African American women recruited from the community who used violence with a male partner, women's use of violence, but not their experiences of being victimized, was predicted by child abuse traumatization. Women's use of violence did not directly or indirectly predict symptomatology. In contrast, child abuse traumatization and women's experiences of being victimized were predictive of both depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and being victimized also was related indirectly to depressive symptoms through avoidance coping.     

RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION, AFFECTIVITY, AND GAY-SPECIFIC STRESSORS IN SAME-SEX COUPLES JOINED IN CIVIL UNIONS

Relationship satisfaction, affect, and stress were examined in 313 same-sex couples who had had civil unions in Vermont during the first year of this legislation. Similarity between partners on age and on positive/negative affectivity was related to relationship satisfaction whereas there was no association with similarity in income, education, and outness. Lesbian couples ( n = 199), compared to gay male couples, reported experiencing more stress related to family reaction to their sexuality, whereas gay male couples ( n = 114) reported more stress surrounding the issues of HIV/AIDS and violence/harassment than did lesbian couples. This study is the first to examine within-couple factors among same-sex couples with legalized relationships.     

Likelihood to rape in college males

This study assessed rape and sexual force proclivities among 159 college men at a small Protestant church-affiliated liberal arts college. No data were collected regarding ethnicity; however, institutional statistics indicate that the population was about 90% European American. There were 69 freshmen, 31 sophomores, 30 juniors, and 29 seniors (mean age = 19.34). Thirty-four percent reported some proclivity to rape or force sex. Participants who reported both proclivities indicated higher rape myth acceptance, offered more justifications for the increasing use of violence against women, were lower in rape empathy, held more gender stereotyped attitudes toward women, and accepted interpersonal violence more than those who reported no proclivities. However, by contrast, these groups did not differ on general emotional empathy.This paper is based on a Senior Honor's Research Project conducted by the first author while an undergraduate. The first author would like to thank Thomas Peterson for his assistance and encouragement during the early stages of the research process and Keith Yanner for his timely statistical suggestions.     

Violence in College Students' Dating Relationships1

In a survey of 504 college students examining predictors of violence in heterosexual relationships, over half of both men and women had committed at least one physically violent act, and men more often than women reported having been the victims of such acts. Most respondents who reported some experience with violence had both committed and received it, were involved in relatively few different types of violence, and first experienced violence when a relationship had moved beyond the casual dating stage. Modest associations between physical violence and sexual aggression were uncovered. In a series of discriminant analyses, men who abused their partners were not readily distinguished from men who did not, but tended to be young, low in family income, traditional in attitudes toward women, abused as children, currently living with a woman, and from Appalachian areas. Women who abused were more readily discriminated and scored low in social desirability, were abused as children, and were from non-Appalachian areas. Men who were abused were likely to be living with a woman and tended to be low in family income; similarly, cohabitation was related among women to being a target of violence, as were having been abused as a child and scoring low in social desirability. Findings are related to those of other studies of dating abuse, as well as to the family violence and aggression literatures.     

Internal poverty and teen pregnancy

The subjects for the present study were drawn from the female students who participated in the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) initial eighth-grade data collection. Adolescent females who later became pregnant were matched on race, birth month, and birth year with adolescent females who did not report a pregnancy. The study examined selected predictor variables from the baseline 1988 wave of data in relation to the outcome variable of pregnancy status. Results indicated a statistically significant difference in locus of control between those females who later became pregnant and those who later did not experience a pregnancy during adolescence. Those who later became pregnant were much more likely to have an external locus of control (p = .0001). Females who later became pregnant were also more likely to have a poorer sense of personal efficacy (p = .0001). Finally, females who later experienced a teen pregnancy had more traditional occupational expectations (p = .006) and lower educational expectations (p = .001) than did those who did not later report a teen pregnancy.     

Risk Factors,Self-Attributions,and Adjustment Problems Among Victims of Sexual Coercion1

College women (N= 125) were surveyed about their experiences with sexual coercion. Forty-two percent of the sample reported one or more coercive incidents involving completed intercourse (26%) or attempted intercourse (16%). Only 6% of these incidents were reported to police or campus authorities. Of the victims, 92% knew their assailants, at least casually. A combination of demographic, sexual history, and personality characteristics predicted 21 % of the variance in experience with sexual coercion. The variables most highly associated with reported victimization were frequency of sexual activity and religiosity; women who were more sexually active and who attended religious services less often were more likely to report experiencing sexual coercion than were women who were less sexually active and who attended religious services more often. A combination of situational and attitudinal variables predicted 52% of the variance in victim attributions. The variables most highly correlated with attributions were degree of victim assertiveness and the type of force used by the assailant; less assertive women and women who had been coerced by the use of economic or psychological force made relatively more internal attributions about the coercion incidents they had been involved in than did women who were more assertive and women who had been coerced by means of physical force. Finally, a combination of situational and attitudinal variables predicted 34% of the variance in victim-reported adjustment problems following the coercion incident. The use of economic or psychological force, greater physical injury, and relative acceptance of interpersonal violence were associated with more severe adjustment problems, whereas the use of physical force, less physical injury, and relative rejection of interpersonal violence were associated with less severe adjustment problems. The implications of these results for the reduction of acquaintance assault and for the counseling of victims are discussed.     

The impact of father absence on adolescent separation-individuation

The authors compared separation-individuation and psychological separation from fathers of 25 adolescent boys who were living with both biological parents with that of 25 boys who were living with their biological mothers in homes in which the fathers did not reside. The results showed that the boys in the 2 groups did not differ on measures of separation-individuation and that the quality of the mother-son relationship mediated several of the assessed separation-individuation manifestations. The authors' initial data analysis with regard to psychological separation showed that boys who lived in homes in which the father was a nonresident were more separated on 2 of the 4 dimensions assessed; however, when controlled for quality of mother-son and father-son relationship, these differences were not significant. The frequency of father contact in homes in which the father did not reside was positively correlated with healthy separation but negatively correlated with functional, attitudinal, and emotional independence from the father. The results of the study support the importance of the quality of a child's relationship with his or her mother and father as a mediator of several dimensions of the separation-individuation process.     

WOMEN, HOMELESSNESS, AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE Moving Beyond the Stereotypes

This study examined the characteristics of homeless women with sub stance abuse problems. Data were collected on a sample of 323 home less substance abusers. First, 49 women and 274 men were compared to demonstrate distinct problems and treatment needs of the women. Results showed that the women were more likely than the men to abuse drugs, but less likely to receive substance abuse treatment. In addition, women spent more time in doubled-up living arrangements, and were more likely to receive outpatient psychiatric treatment. Second, two subgroups of women were compared: those who had been homeless for 6 months or less, and those who had been homeless longer than 6 months during their lifetime. The women who had been homeless longer were less educated, younger when they first became homeless, and were more likely to abuse alcohol, to have been assaulted, and to have attempted suicide. Implications for research and treatment are discussed.     

Clergy Response to Domestic Violence: A Preliminary Survey of Clergy Members,Victims, and Batterers

Although the presence of both religious organizations and violence in American communities is pervasive, scant attention has focused on how to best enroll clergy and religiously oriented resources in the battle against family violence. Given that it is not uncommon for women or couples to seek counseling or advice from clergy before accessing community-based resources, the frequency, nature, and utility of these contacts were assessed in this exploratory study from the perspectives of 47 female victims and 70 male perpetrators of domestic violence. Forty-one clergy members from various denominations were also surveyed about their contacts with those seeking help for domestic violence. Results indicated that 43% of the victims and 20% of the perpetrators did seek help from clergy. Almost all of the victims who contacted clergy reported satisfaction with the counsel they received. All clergy respondents reported counseling people who had experienced domestic violence during their career, and 80% had violence-related contacts in the past year. The service-related implications of these clergy contacts from victim, perpetrator, and clergy perspectives are discussed.     

Reproductive Symptoms: Interrelations and Determinants

This study investigated the interrelation of women's symptomatic reports during menstruation and pregnancy, the association of these reports with the general tendency to report somatic and psychological symptoms, and the role of social stress in intensifying symptom complaints. The sample consisted of 196 women who were either pregnant or who had had at least one pregnancy in the past. The pattern of results varied with current reproductive status. Past menstrual symptom reports had a significant relation to current pregnancy symptoms, but the converse was not found. Women who reported a high level of general health complaints also reported more intense reproductive symptoms. Social stress, however, did not significantly affect reproductive symptom reports. The use of multivariate techniques was found to improve the explanation bf the ways in which social and somatic factors interact to determine women's psychological responses to reproductive experiences.