The results suggest HCG is beneficial to Chinese-abused women. Further research is needed to determine the intervention's effectiveness in improving longer-term outcomes in these women.
Literature shows a link between adverse childhood experiences and subsequent depression, but there is a lack of concrete evidence on whether victimization of intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood plays significant roles in that link. This study aimed to test the mediating effect of adulthood IPV victimization in the associations between exposure to family violence in childhood and adulthood depression. Exposure to family violence in childhood was operationalized as one's experiences of child abuse and witnessing parental IPV in childhood. This study also tested the effects of other violence-related factors from the Personal and Relationships Profile, including one's antisocial personality, borderline personality, dominance, posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, and violence approval, on the associations. A path analysis was conducted a cross-sectional survey study sample recruited between 2009 and 2010. The sample was 8,807 adults selected with a multistage stratified sampling procedure from six cities in China (43.4% male; M age = 40.61 years, SD = 8.93). The main outcome was participants' depressive symptoms during the past 2 weeks. As predicted, the path model suggests that IPV victimization significantly mediated the associations between exposure to family violence in childhood and adulthood depression. Violence approval and PTS symptoms, but not the other violence-related factors, significantly mediated the above associations. Findings warrant the need to identify individuals with exposure to family violence in early stages, and to provide them with suitable intervention programs to prevent subsequent IPV as well as to minimize the negative impacts of the exposure to family violence in childhood.
Young mothers face considerable challenges that can affect their mental health, with anxiety being one of the most common mental health problems observed in this population. Furthermore, pregnancy is one of the risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). There is thus an urgent need to explore the IPV risk faced by young mothers and its association with their mental health, anxiety in particular. The study aimed to investigate the correlation between IPV victimization and anxiety in young mothers, as well as the protective effects of social support and resilience. A total of 79 young Chinese mothers aged 16 to 25 were recruited from a special service project for young parents in Hong Kong. Just more than half (50.6%) were found to have experienced psychological aggression by their current partner, with 26.6% and 13.9%, respectively, having experienced physical assault and sexual abuse. Roughly a quarter (25.3%) perceived themselves to suffer from moderate or severe generalized anxiety disorder. Logistic regression further showed the young mothers who had experienced physical assault and/or sexual abuse by their current partners to be at least six times likelier to have moderate or severe anxiety disorder (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 4.51, p < .05) than those who had experienced no such violence. Young mothers with less perceived social support (aOR = 0.77, p < .01), a lower secondary level of education or below (aOR = 12.99, p < .05), and in receipt of social security assistance (aOR = 5.69, p < .05) were also likelier to have moderate or severe anxiety disorder. The results indicate the importance of social support during the critical period of young motherhood. Health care professionals need to remain alert to the impacts of IPV victimization and the risk of anxiety in young mothers with a low level of education and/or receiving financial support.
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