This study tested sexual abuse as a unique predictor of subsequent adolescent sexual behaviors, pregnancy, and motherhood when in company with other types of maltreatment (physical abuse, neglect) and alternative behavioral, family, and contextual risk factors in a prospective, longitudinal study of maltreated (n = 275) and comparison (n = 239) nulliparous females aged 14-19 years old assessed annually through 19 years old. Hierarchical regression was used to disentangle risk factors that account for the associations of maltreatment type on risky sexual behaviors at 19 years old, adolescent pregnancy, and adolescent motherhood. Findings indicate that sexual and physical abuse remain significant predictors of risky sexual behaviors, and that sexual abuse remains a significant predictor of adolescent motherhood when alternative explanatory variables are controlled.

Objectives: Child sexual abuse (CSA) affects nearly 60,000 children in the U.S. annually. Although prevention efforts targeting adults in the community and school-aged children have been somewhat successful, there is a clear gap in the current prevention efforts: parents. Generalized parent-education (PE) programs have effectively reduced the rates of physical abuse and neglect; however, currently no PE program targets risk factors for CSA specifically. We sought to develop a brief module to be added onto existing PE programs thereby leveraging the skills and implementation infrastructure to ensure sustainability. Methods: In three phases, we developed the curriculum, refined content and presentation while simultaneously developing and psychometrically evaluating a measurement tool, and conducted an acceptability and feasibility pilot. These phases are described in detail such that intervention scientists wishing to develop a module to be added onto existing programs can follow our procedures.

This study examined mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs about responding to infant night wakings across the first year of life, changes in those beliefs, and how individual maternal and paternal beliefs and interparental discrepancy in beliefs about responding to infant night wakings related to parents’ perceptions of coparenting quality. Participants were 167 mothers and 155 fathers who reported on their own beliefs about responding to infant night wakings and perceptions of coparenting quality when infants were 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months old. As predicted, mothers endorsed stronger beliefs about responding more immediately to infant night wakings than fathers, but for both parents these beliefs declined over the first year. Troubled beliefs about responding to infant night wakings predicted worse coparenting quality. Additionally, the discrepancy between mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs predicted coparenting quality such that a larger discrepancy in parents’ beliefs about responding to infant night wakings significantly predicted poorer perceptions of coparenting, particularly in the early months, but only when mothers endorsed stronger beliefs than fathers. Results emphasize the importance of communication and concordance in nighttime parenting practices for aspects of parents’ coparenting relationship. Future research should consider the importance of examining domain-specific parenting practices and cognitions as well as interparental discrepancies when assessing coparenting quality.

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