Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with children's internalizing and externalizing problems. IPV is thought to impair mothers' ability to scaffold young children's emotion regulation through coregulated interactions. Mother-child language style matching (LSM) is an index of coregulation that has yet to be examined in…

We hypothesized that trajectories of domestic violence (DV), maternal depression, and household income (from pregnancy to age 4) would be differentially associated with instability and stability of attachment, as measured by the Strange Situation at ages 1 and 4. Participants were 150 women and children. Women were first assessed during pregnancy…

Individual and family characteristics that predict resilience among children exposed to domestic violence (DV) were examined. Mother-child dyads (n = 190) were assessed when the children were 2, 3, and 4 years of age. DV-exposed children were 3.7 times more likely than nonexposed children to develop internalizing or externalizing problems.…

Objective: To determine whether infants have a traumatic response to intimate partner violence (male violence toward their female partner; IPV) experienced by their mothers, two questions were explored: (1) Is the number of infant trauma symptoms related to the infant's temperament and the mother's mental health? (2) Does severity of violence…

Utilizes sheltered battered women (n=60) and their 7- to 12-year-old children and nonsheltered women (n=61) and their children, to examine the potential moderating effects of maternal parenting stress on children's adjustment in homes with varying levels of domestic violence. Results indicate that children's adjustment was predicted by parenting…

Posttraumatic stress symptoms of 64 children were assessed by their mothers who had experienced abuse during the past year. Of the children exposed to violence 13% experienced posttraumatic stress disorder, 52% suffered from intrusive and unwanted remembering of the traumatic event(s), 19% displayed traumatic avoidance, and 42% experienced…

Studies show that 65-85% of mothers hold their infants on the left side of their own body and that this left-bias may be reduced or reversed when mothers have symptoms similar to depression or dysphoria (de Chateau, Holmberg, & Winberg, 1978). No studies, however, have used diagnostic criteria to assess the mother's psychological state. The…

This study examined the social interactions and emotional adjustment of 21 preschool children of battered women and 25 same-age children from nonviolent homes. Mothers rated the frequency of their emotional and physical abuse during the past year, their mental health, parenting qualities, and their child's adjustment. Two observers evaluated the…