Childhood Violence and Behavioral Effects Among Urban Pregnant Women

Abstract

These findings underscore the importance of understanding the full impact of early childhood violence on behaviors during pregnancy and provide direction for substance use and depression prevention strategies among pregnant women.

Are women with a history of abuse more vulnerable to perinatal depressive symptoms? A systematic review

“…Different articles confirmed that childhood abuse is associated also with a higher likelihood of having depressive symptoms during pregnancy (Benedict et al 1999;Chung et al 2008;Hayes et al 2010;Lang et al 2006;Mezey et al 2005;Nelson et al 2010). Three of these articles studied the association during the entire perinatal period (Hayes et al 2010;Lang et al 2006;Mezey et al 2005).…”

“…Five articles referred only to childhood abuse (Benedict et al 1999;Buist 1998;Chung et al 2008;Lang et al 2006;Edwards et al 2008b), and seven articles considered both adult and childhood abuse (Cohen et al 2002;Stevens et al 2002;Mezey et al 2005;Holzman et al 2006;Edwards et al 2008a;Jundt et al 2009;Nelson et al 2010). One article considered any adult abuse including intimate partner violence (IPV) (Urquia et al 2011), and two articles referred to abuse, without time specification-childhood or adulthood (Silverman and Loudon 2010;Shah et al 2011).…”

“…This association persists after adjusting for important possible confounding factors, such as history of psychiatric illness, social support, or maternal status. When the definition of abuse was narrowed to childhood, the association was clearer in the antepartum period (Benedict et al 1999;Chung et al 2008;Lang et al 2006;Mezey et al 2005;Nelson et al 2010) and was especially severe in the case of sexual abuse (Benedict et al 1999).…”

“…However, according to the theory of accumulation of trauma (Follette et al 1996), childhood abuse creates a vulnerability to re-traumatization in adulthood (Mezey et al 2005) with more damaging consequences. The coexistence then of childhood and adult abuse resulted not only in more severe depressive symptoms (Benedict et al 1999;Chung et al 2008;Nelson et al 2010) but also longer duration of symptoms (Dennis and Ross 2006).…”

The Association between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Alcohol Use during Pregnancy in a Representative Sample of Adult Women

“…Recent unadjusted analysis of the Nurse’s Health Study II data showed that a combined measure of childhood physical, emotional, and sexual abuse was associated with increased prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy in a dose-response fashion (Roberts, Lyall, Rich-Edwards, Ascherio, & Weisskopf, 2013). Furthermore, a study with pregnant women seeking care in an urban emergency department found that childhood physical abuse and sexual abuse were both associated with alcohol use during pregnancy after adjusting for age, race, education, and current abuse (Nelson, Uscher-Pines, Staples & Grisso, 2010). …”