Very little work has examined potential moderating effects in the link between prenatal intimate partner violence (IPV) and infant adjustment, especially in the first critical weeks following delivery. The current study evaluated the protective role of breastfeeding in the relationship between prenatal IPV and infant temperament at 4 months. Pregnant women (n = 82) were interviewed during pregnancy and at 6 weeks and 4 months postpartum. It was hypothesized that (a) prenatal IPV would predict infant temperament outcomes at the 4-month postpartum visit, and (b) breastfeeding continuation at 6 weeks acts as a protective factor such that breastfed infants will be less affected by the risk posed by prenatal IPV. Results indicated direct and negative effects of prenatal IPV on positive affectivity/surgency and orienting/regulatory capacity at 4 months. A significant moderating effect of breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum was identified. Mothers who were not breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum demonstrated the expected negative relationship between prenatal IPV exposure and infant adjustment, but if mothers were breastfeeding at 6 weeks postpartum, the relationship between IPV exposure and infant positive affectivity/surgency and orienting/regulatory capacity was not significantly different from zero. Results indicate a significant protective effect of breastfeeding in the intergenerational transmission of risk for infants born to mothers exposed to IPV.
Objective: Social ecological and intergenerational models of risk and resilience have important implications for understanding child health following trauma. These models are highly compatible and readily unified from a theoretical perspective, but empirical evaluations of social ecological theory have rarely incorporated intergenerational processes that extend beyond the parent-child relationship to include other systems. The current study seeks to utilize an integrative approach that examines an intergenerational application of the social ecological model by evaluating the indirect influence of risk and promotive factors in mothers' social ecologies (at child age 1) on children's adjustment problems (at child age 4 and 6) via maternal depression (at child age 1 and 4). Methods: Child and caregiver data were drawn from the Consortium of Longitudinal Studies in Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). LONGSCAN is a 5-site study taking place in diverse geographic locations across the United States. Across sites, samples included children who either had a documented history of maltreatment and/or were identified as "high risk" for maltreatment. Only those mother-child dyads who participated in the age 1 visit were included in the study (n ϭ 286). Results: Results indicated that maternal victimization, maternal family satisfaction, and maternal report of neighborhood quality indirectly affected later child adjustment via maternal depression. Conclusions: Integrating factors of the multiple social ecologies inhabited by mothers and children is an important new research direction for resilience work, which to date has focused overwhelmingly on factors within the child's social ecology to the neglect of intergenerational processes.
Objective: Research has established a strong link between social networks and health outcomes, but less work has examined how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact prenatal social networks. This study explored classes of ACEs in association with family, friend, and partner social support network size, controlling for income and past-year intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure. Method: Participants included 238 pregnant women (Mage = 26.86, SD = 5.88; 54.4% Black) recruited from community organizations serving families in the Midwest and Midsouth, United States. Women were recruited from community organizations, flyers posted in local businesses, and study staff recruitment at local agencies and events. Women self-reported on ACEs, IPV, monthly income, and their social networks. Results: A latent class analysis yielded a 3-class solution: a high exposure class (38.7%), a sexual abuse/household dysfunction (SA/HD) class (20.2%), and a low exposure class (41.2%). Women in the high exposure class reported smaller family networks compared to the SA/HD and low exposure classes, but larger friend networks than the low exposure class. Women in the high exposure class reported more partner connections than the SA/HD class. Women in the high exposure class reported more frequent IPV than the low exposure class. Conclusions: Patterns of ACEs were differentially associated with women’s social support network size. Findings suggest that pregnant women exposed to high levels of ACEs may be more likely to rely on friends or partners for support, instead of family. Prenatal group-based services could provide opportunities for pregnant women to process various adverse experiences and bolster social connections.
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