Journal of Family Psychology 2015, Vol. 29, No. 1, 29-38

© 2014 American Psychological Association 0893-3200/15/$ 12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038584

Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: Influences of Parenting, Family Distress, and Siblings Ketan Tailor

Ashley Stewart-Tufescu and Caroline Piotrowski

Marquette University

University of Manitoba

The aim of this study was to investigate associations between maternal stress, parenting behavior, and sibling adjustment in relation to child trauma symptoms in families with and without a history of intimate partner violence (IPV). Maternal report was used to measure maternal stress and child trauma symptoms, whereas parenting behavior was assessed through an observational measure. Participants consisted of mothers with 2 school-age siblings recruited from the community. Results indicated that violent families reported higher levels of maternal stress and sibling trauma symptoms than nonviolent families, although no differences were found in parenting behavior. Sibling trauma symptoms and negative maternal behavior toward a sibling were strong predictors of trauma symptoms in younger siblings exposed to IPV but only modest predictors for older siblings. Moderator analyses showed that in IPV-affected families, the trauma symptoms of older siblings were related to the trauma symptoms of younger siblings when maternal stress was high. Keywords: exposure to violence, siblings, parenting, maternal stress, child trauma

Over the last 3 decades researchers have paid growing attention to the experiences of children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV). “First generation” studies set out to capture the negative effects of IPV on children and adolescents through documentation of developmental risks and vulnerabilities, including emotional and behavioral problems and social and cognitive impairments (Onyskiw, 2003). Only the last decade has seen increasing inves­ tigation into trauma symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Graham-Bermann, DeVoe, Mattis, Lynch, & Thomas, 2006). In the second generation of research, investigators called for research into mechanisms mediating or moderating the adjust­ ment of children exposed to IPV. Because mothers have long been recognized as central to the welfare of their children (Cicchetti & Carlson, 1989), concerns about the parenting of women survivors of IPV have been raised relative to children’s adaptation (Mullender et al., 2002). Research clearly shows that many women survivors exhibit higher levels of stress than women who have not experienced IPV and that this stress could negatively impact their children (Holden & Ritchie, 1991). Nevertheless, scholarship on the parenting of women who have experienced IPV remains in-

conclusive, as different studies have reported more negative (Dubowitz et al., 2001), neutral (Sullivan, Nguyen, Allen, Bybee, & Juras, 2000), and even positive maternal behaviors (Levendosky, Huth-Bocks, Shapiro, & Semel, 2003). Research on IPV-affected families has often failed to take into account that mothers may treat their children differently. Although most families that experience IPV have more than one child, siblings are rarely considered in the literature despite significant and important differences in patterns of adjustment across sibling status (Piotrowski, 2011). Differential maternal treatment in the context of IPV may be an important mechanism that helps to explain variation in sibling adjustment, as above average levels of preferential treatment from mothers (and fathers) have been doc­ umented, with lower levels of preferential treatment linked to poorer adaptation in the “less favored” child, who is usually the older sibling (Volling & Elins, 1998). Although Holden and Ritchie (1991) found maternal stress alone to impact the development of children exposed to IPV, work by O’laughlin, Meeker, and Bischoff (2000) on nonviolent fami­ lies indicated that maternal stress interacted with older sibling distress to moderate the level of distress in the younger sibling. Clearly, the unique experience of each sibling may contribute to variation in their individual adjustment. In spite of this, very little is currently known about how interactions between parenting, maternal stress, and the adjustment of a sibling may affect children in IPV-affected families.

This article was published Online First December 22, 2014. Ketan Tailor, Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psy­ chology, Marquette University; Ashley Stewart-Tufescu, Applied Health Sciences, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Manitoba; Caroline Piotrowski, Department of Family Social Sciences, University of Mani­ toba. This research was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant (410-96-0311) awarded to Caroline Piotrowski. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ketan Tailor, Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53233. E-mail: ketan.tailor@ marquette.edu

Child Trauma Symptoms and Intimate Partner Violence Children exposed to IPV are more likely to exhibit higher levels of PTSD symptomatology than their nonexposed counterparts (Rossman & Ho, 2000), although it is important to note that many show no noticeable signs of traumatic stress. Graham-Bermann et 29

TAILOR, STEWART-TUFESCU, AND PIOTROWSKI

30

al. (2006), who were among the first researchers to address this topic, explored the incidence of the three Diagnostic and Statisti­ cal Manual o f Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) PTSD symptom groupings in a White and African American sample of children from IPVaffected families. They found that a sizable percentage of the total sample presented PTSD profiles (25%), with traumatic reexperiencing having a more salient effect on children (76%) than avoid­ ance (35%) or physiological arousal (31%). Accounting for variation in the adjustment of children exposed to IPV has become a priority for research as differences in trauma symptoms are striking and hardly uncommon. In line with the call in the literature for a developmentally sensitive approach to PTSD (van der Kolk, 2005), Spilsbury et al. (2007) used a measure of trauma designed specifically for youths in their investigation and concluded from their sample of school-age children (5-17 years) that increasing age was associated with a lower odds of reaching clinically significant scores for posttraumatic stress. In the same study, greater chronicity of exposure to IPV and the presence of covictimization were noted to increase the likelihood of several symptoms of trauma, as were factors such as White ethnicity, female sex, and perceptions of threat and control. Theory on the etiology of child maltreatment has long acknowl­ edged the critical role of parenting in children’s adaptation (Cicchetti & Carlson, 1989). From a developmental psychopathology perspective, Cicchetti and his colleagues have suggested that mal­ treatment exists within a system of family risk factors. Among these risk factors are (a) parents’ maladaptive biological and psychological resources; (b) violent and discordant marital rela­ tionships; (c) less affectionate and more conflictual parent-child relationships; (d) an intergenerational history of abuse in the family; and (e) environmental stressors (e.g., racism, unemploy­ ment; Cicchetti, 2004; Cicchetti & Lynch, 1995; Cicchetti & Toth, 2003). Developmental psychopathologists acknowledge that al­ though the parent-child relationship may be central to children’s adjustment, it holds only one piece of the explanatory puzzle in a constellation of other family risk factors (Cowan & Cowan, 2006). In this study, the interactions between mothers and their schoolage children were investigated from a similar perspective. We focused on maternal stress related to major concerns outside the parenting system (i.e., life concerns such as unemployment) as a social-contextual factor that can shape parenting and as a potential mechanism influencing children’s trauma outcomes in families with a history of IPV.

Parenting and Intimate Partner Violence Parenting Parenting is arguably the most important mechanism in the adjustment of children exposed to IPV (Mullender et al., 2002). Some studies have shown that IPV may contribute to psycholog­ ical disturbances in women, leading to poor parenting behavior such as aggressive or physical forms of discipline (Dubowitz et al., 2001) and reduced emotional warmth (Levendosky & GrahamBermann, 2000). Yet other studies have shown that the physical and emotional abuse of a partner may have little impact on wom­ en’s emotional availability or endorsement of corporal punishment for children (Sullivan et al., 2000), with some women even com­

pensating for the abuse by being very attentive and responsive during mother-child interactions (Levendosky et al., 2003). Al­ though a good proportion of IPV scholarship has focused on parenting relative to children’s internalizing and externalizing be­ havior, some work has linked the quality of the mother-child relationship to children’s vulnerability to and resilience against trauma symptoms (Gewirtz, Degarmo, & Medhanie, 2011; Rossman & Ho, 2000). In conditions of spillover, it appears that IPV may “contami­ nate” the parent-child relationship and negatively influence the emotional climate (Gamez-Guadix, Almendros, Carrobles, & Munoz-Rivas, 2012). Consistent with the sensitization hypothesis (Cummings & Davies, 1994), exposure to IPV may not only affect children’s emotional responses to parental violence but also their responses to violence outside the parental relationship. In an earlier investigation, Adamson and Thompson (1998) found that IPVexposed children tended to respond with greater anger and sadness than their nonexposed counterparts to simulated conflict situations involving adults. Until now, only the marital conflict literature has explored children’s responses to mother-child disputes, reporting more fearful reactions among children from high-conflict homes to videotaped scenes of both mother-girl and mother-boy conflict (El-Sheikh, 1997). Because relationships with young people (i.e., peers, siblings) may be particularly important for children who are exposed to IPV (Mullender et al., 2002), it is critical that more attention is devoted to understanding not only these children’s experiences of negative interadult interactions but also negative interactions between adults and other children.

Maternal Stress Mothers who experience IPV report more stress than mothers who have not experienced IPV (Holden & Ritchie, 1991). Most research has emphasized parenting-related stress, documenting a clear association with children’s emotional and behavioral adjust­ ment (Owen, Thompson, Shaffer, Jackson, & Kaslow, 2009), with no developmental effects noted across preschool and school-age children (Huth-Bocks & Hughes, 2008). Women survivors also encounter a number of stressful circumstances outside the parent­ ing system, such as fewer economic resources, pressures to meet the demands of the violent partner, and low levels of social support (Letourneau et al., 2011). In a rare study by Wolfe, Jaffe, Wilson, and Zak (1985), maternal stress related to emotional and physical health problems, negative life events, and family crises was sig­ nificantly associated with more child behavior problems in IPVaffected families than in nonviolent families. Although mothers’ mental health may play a central role in their children’s adjustment, recent work on nonviolent families has revealed that adult siblings of individuals with high levels of emotional distress may vicariously experience traumatization (Sra, 2013), particularly if their sibling became disturbed before the age of 18 (Friedrich, Lively, & Buckwalter, 1999). It is interesting to note that earlier O’Laughlin, Meeker, and Bischoff’s (2000) study on nonviolent families showed that the combination of older sibling distress and parenting stress had a notable influence on younger sibling distress, with the opposite true in the case of the older sibling. Given these findings, it is likely that maternal stress may not operate in isolation but rather in interaction with older sibling distress to moderate the level of distress in younger sib-

CHILDREN EXPOSED TO INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

lings. This moderation hypothesis has not yet been examined in IPV-affected families, and, hence, this study makes a significant contribution to the literature by examining the influence of mater­ nal life-related stress, in conjunction with the trauma symptoms of siblings, on trauma outcomes in children exposed to IPV.

Sibling Adjustment and Intimate Partner Violence Although little is known about similarities and differences in the adjustment of siblings exposed to IPV, Skopp, McDonald, Manke, and Jouriles (2005) found no mean differences in adjustment problems or appraisals of interparental conflict (threat, self-blame) across older and younger siblings exposed to IPV. Cross-sibling correlations (i.e., those between older and younger siblings on the same measure), on the other hand, revealed that siblings who blamed themselves for interparental conflict were at greater risk for internalizing behaviors, whereas those who interpreted the conflict as a threat to themselves, the security of their family, or both, were more vulnerable to externalizing behaviors. Piotrowski (2011), in a recent cluster analysis, identified five distinct patterns of adjustment in siblings exposed to IPV that were similar to but not identical among older and younger siblings: depressed, inter­ nalizing, grieving, asymptomatic, and multiproblem externalizing. Although the five cluster patterns were relatively stable across sibling status, there was little consistency in symptom groupings within families. Unfortunately, measures of trauma were not in­ cluded in either of these studies. Sibling adjustment is closely tied to differential maternal treat­ ment for both school-age and adolescent children (Coldwell, Pike, & Dunn, 2008). Among maritally distressed families, aboveaverage patterns of preferential treatment have been noted, along with greater difficulty in the adjustment of the “less favored” child (usually the older sibling; Volling & Elins, 1998). Recognizing parenting as a reciprocal, transactive process, a study on nonvio­ lent families found that younger siblings exhibited greater reactiv­ ity to maternal and paternal patterns of differential treatment than their older sibling counterparts. Specifically, younger siblings showed higher levels of positivity to receiving preferential treat­ ment and more negativity to their older siblings’ receipt of pref­ erential treatment (McHale, Crouter, McGuire, & Updegraff, 1995).

The Present Study Guided by a developmental psychopathology framework (Cowan & Cowan, 2006), our main research question investigated the potential associations between parenting, maternal stress, and sibling adjustment in families with and without a history of IPV. Given what is known to date about the posttraumatic adaptation of children exposed to IPV, we hypothesized the following: Hypothesis 1: Maternal life-related stress, parenting behavior, and sibling trauma symptoms will be less favorable in families affected by IPV than those not affected by IPV. Hypothesis 2: The trauma symptoms of siblings and charac­ teristics of the mother-child relationship, including parenting behavior and maternal stress, will predict trauma outcomes in children exposed to IPV.

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Hypothesis 3: Maternal life-related stress will moderate the relationship between older and younger sibling trauma, in that the trauma symptoms of older siblings will have a stronger impact on the trauma symptoms of younger siblings in fami­ lies with higher maternal life-related stress. Because no previous work has examined differential maternal treatment in families affected by IPV, we also explored similarities and differences in mother-child interaction between siblings.

Method Participants A nonrandom community-based sample of violent and nonvio­ lent families was recruited through newspaper ads, mail flyers, and posters placed in public venues such as libraries, supermarkets, and counseling agency waiting areas. Families were included in the study if (a) at least two siblings between ages 5 and 18 years were willing to participate; (b) family members spoke English fluently; and, for the violent group, (c) mothers self-identified as having a history of IPV. As required by the university Research Ethics Board (REB), all mothers who experienced IPV had or were receiving counseling regarding their abuse. Mothers. Mothers in violent (n = 47) and nonviolent (n = 45) groups were asked for demographic information on age, education, marital status, employment status, ethnocultural background, so­ cioeconomic status, sibling age, sibling gender, sibling age spac­ ing, and family size. Of mothers with EPV histories, 62% selfidentified as European Canadian, 30% as Aboriginal, and 8% as multiracial. Most had a high school education or less (58%) and lived below the urban low-income cut-off (66%) set for a family of three or more persons (Statistics Canada, 1999). One fifth of the participants were unemployed, and close to one half (47%) were lone parents defined as separated, divorced, widowed, or never married. Of mothers with no history of IPV, 82% self-identified as European Canadian, 11% as Aboriginal, and 7% as multiracial. The majority were employed (91%), lived above the low-income cut-off (58%), had an education beyond the level of high school (65%), or were lone parents (62%). Thirty-five years was the average age of mothers in both violent (SD = 5.32, range = 27-47) and nonviolent (SD = 5.38, range = 25-49) groups. C hildren. Participants were 92 sibling pairs; 47 were exposed to IPV in the past, and 45 were not. Average ages for older and younger siblings in the violent group were 11.33 years (SD = 2.86; range = 6-17; 29 male, 19 female) and 8.51 years (SD = 2.40, range = 5-15 years; 27 male, 20 female), with a mean age spacing of 2.83 years (SD = 1.99). For older and younger siblings in the nonviolent group, average ages were 10.88 years (SD = 2.81, range = 6-19; 19 male, 26 female) and 8.20 years (SD = 2.41, range = 5-16; 21 male, 24 female); mean age spacing was reported as 2.67 years (SD = 1.78). Moreover, the average number of children in the family for the violent group was 2.34 (SD = 0.89, range = 2-6) and 2.29 (SD = 0.541; range = 2-4) for the nonviolent group; 83% of violent families had 2 children, whereas 76% of nonviolent families had 2 children, Sixty-four percent of mothers with IPV histories indicated that their children had re­ ceived some counseling in the past.

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TAILOR, STEWART-TUFESCU, AND PIOTROWSKI

Materials and Procedure After REB approval, mothers were screened over the phone to ensure eligibility. If criteria were met, mothers chose one of four locations for data collection. Mothers provided written informed consent and each child provided oral assent. Family members were interviewed separately and privately by a female interviewer. Families were given $75 remuneration and community resources information. Childhood exposure. Mothers were asked to determine the length of each of their child’s lifetime exposure to IPV with a response to an initial and follow-up question: Were your children present in the home during a violent or abusive incident? If yes, for what period of time did it last? On average, older siblings were exposed for 44% of their lifetime and younger siblings for 46% of their lifetime. Violence between partners. The Physical Aggression sub­ scale of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979) was com­ pleted by mothers to assess violent behaviors that occurred in the context of a conflict in the past 12 months with their most recent violent partner. The CTS is a self-report instrument that measures the frequency of eight violent behaviors that range in severity from throwing things at a partner to using a knife or gun. Each violent behavior is rated on a 7-point scale that spans from 0 {never) to 6 {more than 20 times). Mothers with a history of IPV reported on their own and their partner’s violent behavior; alpha coefficients were .90 and .85, respectively. Only mothers’ reports of their own violent behaviors were included in the analysis, as more mothers chose to reveal their own {n = 47) than their partner’s behavior {n = 30). However, 66% of mothers indicated that an intimate partner had directed at least one violent behavior toward them in the context of a conflict in the past year (mild physical violence subscale, M = 4.46, SD = 5.12; severe physical violence subscale, M = 4.61, SD = 5.63; n = 47), and 68% reported directing at least one violent behavior at an intimate partner in the context of a conflict within the same year (mild physical violence subscale, M = 3.17, SD = 3.89; severe physical violence subscale, M = 2.28, SD = 7.61; n = 30). Child trauma symptoms. Wolfe, Gentile, and Wolfe (1989) developed the 20-item Child Behavior Checklist—PTSD (CBCLPTSD) scale that is used in clinical settings to assess for trauma symptoms in children. PTSD-related items include difficulty con­ centrating, obsessive thoughts, feels too guilty, moody, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, irrational fears, clinging to adults, nervous, anxious, sad or depressed, withdrawn, secretive, feels persecuted, irritable, argues a lot, and somatic complaints. Each item uses a 3-point scale with 0 {not true), 1 {sometimes true), and 2 {often true). Mothers completed the PTSD scale twice; once for each sibling. Previous research has reported good internal consistency and discriminant validity (Wolfe et al., 1989). Maternal stress. The Parenting Stress Index (PSI; Abidin, 1995) is a parent-report instrument designed to assess perceptions of stress. The PSI contains a 19-item Life Stress scale that provides an index of the magnitude of mothers’ stress due to major unfore­ seen life events (e.g., divorce, loss of a job) in the last year; this scale was used for analysis. Items on the Life Stress scale are dichotomously scored with 0 {no) and a positive value that varies from item to item for yes. Generally, higher scores on the PSI are indicative of higher levels of stress. The PSI has demonstrated

good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and validity (Abi­ din, 1995). Mother-child interaction. An observational procedure was used to examine the quality of interaction between mothers and their children. The observation room was set up to emulate a family living room setting and was equipped with a video camera. Mother-child dyads were provided with an issues checklist cre­ ated by Robin and Foster (1989), which consisted of a list of potential conversational topics that were likely to generate conflict, and they were asked to choose those issues they most wanted to discuss. Mothers were observed in this context for two 10-min intervals, once with each sibling, for a total of 20 min. The Parent-Child Relationship Coding Scheme was developed for this study to evaluate interaction quality. Six different content codes, each categorized into positive, neutral, or negative, were applied to individual mother and child behaviors during each 15-s interval. The total number of positive categories across all six codes, along with positive emotional tone ratings, was summed for each mother and each sibling to create a positive summary vari­ able. A negative summary variable was created in a similar fash­ ion. Codes included positive (e.g., approval, praise, endearment, agreement), neutral (e.g., discussion or statements of fact, ques­ tions and answers), and negative verbal content (e.g., disapproval, blame, threats, name calling); positive (e.g., laughing, smiling, sharing), neutral (e.g., nodding, shrugging), and negative nonver­ bal content (e.g., scowling, crying, threatening gestures); positive (e.g., hug, sitting on lap), neutral (e.g., sitting close enough to touch), and negative physical contact (e.g., hitting, kicking); pos­ itive (e.g., fulfill request), neutral (e.g., partial or delayed fulfill­ ment), or negative compliance (e.g., refusal to comply); positive (e.g., attentive to one another), neutral (e.g., somewhat attentive or distracted), or negative joint attention (e.g., not attentive). The emotional valence of each interval was also coded on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 {very positive', e.g., joyful excitement, laugh­ ter) to 3 {neutral', e.g., calm, relaxed) to 5 {very negative', e.g., crying, angry). Disengagement was included to capture times when there was no interaction. Because of various interruptions (e.g., going to the bathroom), not all mother-child dyads were observed for the full 10-min observation period; hence, propor­ tional frequencies of positive, negative, and neutral categories for each of the six codes were calculated based on the total number of observation intervals for each family member. Proportional fre­ quencies were summed separately across family members. Before videotapes were coded, three independent observers received train­ ing in the use of the coding scheme. Interrater reliability yielded kappa coefficients ranging from .87 to .99 across individual con­ tent codes and emotional tone ratings.

Results Analytic Strategy Hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) analyses were per­ formed on older sibling trauma and younger sibling trauma in violent and nonviolent groups to assess for specific first-order (main) and moderator effects (Frazier, Tix, & Barron, 2004). In addition to drawing on available theory and research (Adamson & Thompson, 1998; Cowan & Cowan, 2006; El-Sheikh, 1997; Levendosky & Graham-Bermann, 2000; O’Laughlin et al., 2000;

CHILDREN EXPOSED TO INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Wolfe et al., 1985), variables identified as potential predictors were demographic characteristics, maternal characteristics, or mother-child interaction variables that varied significantly across violent and nonviolent groups and that correlated to the outcome variable, older-younger sibling trauma. To control for multicollinearity, predictor, moderator, and product terms were centeredstandardized around a mean of zero (Aiken & West, 1991). The product term was created by multiplying together the outcome variable, older-younger sibling trauma, and the moderator vari­ able, maternal stress; hence, older-younger sibling trauma was used as both a predictor and outcome variable in the analyses. For each HMR, covariates and the centered variables representing the predictor and moderator terms were entered in the first block, and the interaction term was entered in the second block (Frazier et al., 2004). To inspect significant interaction effects, we graphed tests of simple slopes using procedures outlined by Aiken and West (1991). Flair, Black, Babin, Anderson, and Tatham’s (2005) min­ imal sample-size criterion for a regression analysis (i.e., 10 cases per independent variable) was followed throughout.

Comparisons of Demographic and Mother-Child Characteristics Our first hypothesis was partially confirmed as comparisons of families with and without a history of IPV revealed lower levels of maternal positive behavior to younger sibling, t(71) = -2 .3 8 , p = .020, and higher levels of maternal stress, f(79) = 2.32, p = .023, younger sibling trauma, /(89) = 2.79, p = .006, and older sibling trauma, t(87) = 4.28, p = .000, in IPV-affected families (see Table 1). With regard to demographic characteristics, chi-square analysis indicated that mothers with a history of IPV were less likely to have finished high school, x2(l) = 4.43, p = .035, and more likely to live in poverty, x2(l) = 5.22, p = .022, than mothers without a history of IPV. Chi-square also showed that mothers exposed to IPV were more likely to self-identify as a person of color, x2( l ) = 4.77, p = .029, than mothers without such a history. No other significant differences were detected.

Predictions of Sibling Trauma Analysis for predictor identification. Of the demographic and mother-child characteristics that showed significant variation across violent and nonviolent groups, two were significantly re­ lated to younger sibling trauma symptoms: maternal stress, r(40) = .33, p = .038, and older sibling trauma, r(44) = .51, p = .000.1 These variables also comprised the product term; hence, both were identified as predictors for HMR analyses. Maternal negative behavior to older sibling, which was significantly related to younger sibling trauma, r(32) = .43, p = .015, but did not vary significantly across violent and nonviolent groups, t(66) = 0.82, p = .415, was included as a predictor because of past research indicating an association between exposure to mother-child con­ flict and psychological distress in children (El-Sheikh, 1997). No variables other than younger sibling trauma showed significant association to older sibling trauma. All HMRs used the same full set of predictor variables identified in this section. Predicting younger sibling trauma. The overall HMR model of younger siblings exposed to IPV reached statistical significance, F(4, 23) = 7.67, p = .000 (see Table 2). The analysis showed

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significant first-order effects for older sibling trauma, R2 = .42, p = .036, and maternal negative behavior to older sibling, R2 = .41, p = .040; hence, our second hypothesis that trauma symptoms of siblings and characteristics of the mother-child relationship would predict trauma outcomes in IPV-affected children was somewhat supported. In addition, consistent with our moderator hypothesis (Hypothesis 3), maternal stress moderated the relation­ ship between older sibling trauma and younger sibling trauma, R2 = .45, p = .023. A plot of simple slopes shown in Figure 1 depicts a positive relationship between older sibling trauma and younger sibling trauma, with a sharper increase in the case of high, P = .59, t = 3.66, p = .001, rather than low maternal stress, |3 = .23, t = 1.08, p = .293. The full regression model accounted for 57% of the total variance in younger sibling trauma, an 11% increase over the reduced model. For nonviolent families, HMR analyses of younger siblings indicated the full regression model was not significant, F(4, 27) = 1.88, p = .143. Forty-seven percent of the variance in younger sibling trauma was explained by this regression model. Predicting older sibling trauma. The full HMR model for older siblings exposed to IPV was significant, F(4, 26) = 4.19, p = .009. Results revealed a significant first-order effect for younger sibling trauma, R2 = .46, p = .014; however, no other main or moderator effects were significant. Thirty-nine percent of the total variance was accounted for by the overall regression model, whereas 34% was explained by the reduced model. For nonviolent families, the overall HMR model was not sig­ nificant for older siblings, F(4, 28) = 2.49, p = .066. As well, the coefficient of determination (R2) was the lowest (26%) of all HMR analyses.

Correlates of Differential Maternal Treatment Differential maternal treatment of siblings was explored by correlations between mother-child interaction variables directed toward older and younger siblings and by paired samples t tests. All tests were two-tailed with a critical p value of .05 set for statistical significance. Violent group. Maternal behavior directed toward older and younger siblings was highly related for both positive behavior, r(33) = .59, p = .000, and negative behavior, r(33) = .73, p = 000. On average, mothers directed more positive behavior to older siblings than younger siblings, f(32) = 2.96, p = .006; there were no significant differences for negative behavior, t(3Z) = 0.20, p = .845. Further, although older and younger siblings’ negative be­ haviors toward their mother were significantly associated, r(33) = .41, p = .019, positive behaviors were not, r(33) = .31, p = .075. Mean comparisons indicated that older and younger siblings did not differ on average in the frequency of their positive behavior to their mother, f(32) = —0.26, p = .796. Nonviolent group. Maternal positive behaviors directed to their older and younger child were significantly related, r(34) =

1 Although the demographic variables household income and ethnicity varied significantly across our sample of violent and nonviolent families and have been noted to impact the trauma symptoms of intimate partner violence-exposed children (Graham-Bermann et al., 2006; Spilsbury et al., 2007), they were excluded from final hierarchical multiple regression analyses because they did not significantly contribute to the identified model.

TAILOR, STEWART-TUFESCU, AND PIOTROWSKI

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Table 1 Comparisons of Mother-Child Characteristics Violent group

Nonviolent group

Mother-child characteristics

n

M

SD

n

M

SD

t

P

Youngest sibling trauma Oldest sibling trauma Maternal stress Maternal positive behavior to older sibling Maternal negative behavior to older sibling Maternal positive behavior to younger sibling Maternal negative behavior to younger sibling

46 44 40 33 33 37 37

10.75 13.67 4.40 0.37 0.13 0.31 0.23

5.98 6.16 2.50 0.14 0.14 0.15 0.60

45 45 41 35 35 36 36

7.49 8.47 3.22 0.37 0.11 0.39 0.10

5.14 5.28 2.06 0.12 0.09 0.16 0.09

2.79 4.28 2.32 0.22 0.82 -2.38 1.24

.006 .000 .023 .827 .415 .020 .220

.60, p = .000, whereas their negative behaviors were not, r(34) = .32, p = .063. Similarly, sibling positive behaviors directed toward their mother was significantly related, r(34) = .60, p = .000, but their negative behaviors were not, r(34) = .28, p = .105. Mean comparisons showed no differences between maternal positive behaviors directed to siblings, r(33) = 0.76, p = .455, or sibling positive behaviors directed to mothers, r(33) = 0.83, p = .413.

Discussion Although families with a history of IPV exhibited higher levels of family distress than families without such a history, as evi­ denced by child trauma symptoms and maternal stress, parenting behavior was surprisingly comparable across the two groups. For children exposed to IPV, sibling trauma symptoms and negative maternal behavior toward a sibling were strong predictors of trauma symptoms for younger siblings but only modest predictors for older siblings. As expected, child trauma symptoms were not predicted by these variables in nonviolent families. Perhaps most important to note we found that older sibling trauma symptoms had a stronger relation to younger sibling trauma symptoms when

maternal stress was high in IPV-affected families. Finally, differ­ ential maternal treatment of siblings was only detected in families with a history of IPV, with positive behaviors directed more often to older than younger siblings.

Family Distress It is not surprising that women survivors of IPV exhibited higher levels of life-related stress given the tendency of IPV to occur in a context of hierarchical structures and relationships (Fox, Benson, Demaris, & VanWyk, 2002). Social structural theory that concep­ tualizes IPV as a reaction to institutionalized inequalities that promote stressful circumstances (Gelles & Straus, 1979) may hold some explanatory value here, as women from ethnic minority and low socioeconomic and educational backgrounds were more likely to report a history of IPV. Some previous work has supported this notion (Cunradi, Caetano, & Schafer, 2002). Further, mothers’ life-related stress in our study did not directly relate to the adjust­ ment of older or younger siblings exposed to IPV, which is somewhat in conflict with existing research (Wolfe et al., 1985). This discrepancy may be because previous work examined general

Table 2 Hierarchical Multiple Regressions Testing First-Order and Moderator Effects of Mother-Child Characteristics on Older Sibling Trauma and Younger Sibling Trauma Across Violent and Nonviolent Groups Violent group Predictor

P

S£(P)

Nonviolent group b

P

P

SE (P)

b

P

Outcome variable: Younger sibling trauma Step 1 Constant Older sibling trauma Maternal stress Maternal negative behavior to older sibling Step 2 Constant Maternal stress by older sibling trauma

-0.01 0.44 0.44 13.27

0.84 0.13 0.37 5.96

.50 .18 .34

.003 .248 .036

-0.17 0.39 0.09 -13.91

0.88 0.16 0.42 11.41

.42 .04 -.21

.021 .834 .233

-0.10 0.11

0.77 0.04

.38

.023

-0.26 0.03

0.92 0.09

.07

.717

Outcome variable: Older sibling trauma Step 1 Constant Younger sibling trauma Maternal stress Maternal negative behavior to younger sibling Step 2 Constant Maternal stress by younger sibling trauma

-1.71 0.75 -0.22 -14.93

1.37 0.20 0.43 10.04

.66 -.0 9 -.27

.001 .612 .148

0.50 0.36 0.50 9.61

0.91 0.18 0.45 10.38

.34 .19 .16

.058 .268 .362

-1.65 0.09

1.35 0.06

.25

.159

0.26 0.14

0.91 0.11

.22

.192

CHILDREN EXPOSED TO INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

M a te rn a l S tre s s

—

High

- -

LOW

35

Poris, 2004) have outlined that children who are less emotionally regulated may become overaroused in response to the distress of a sibling and subsequently focus on their own negative emotional state. The end result may be heightened personal distress reactions. It is well documented that children in situations of IPV are more inclined to emotional dysregulation (Grych, Jouriles, Swank, Mc­ Donald, & Norwood, 2000), and therefore it is conceivable that siblings exposed to IPV in our sample reacted to each other’s distress with heightened trauma symptoms. Our finding that older sibling trauma had a stronger association to younger sibling trauma in families where maternal stress was high may lend further support to this notion, although more research is needed to test these assertions. Note that it is critical to avoid a linear conceptu­ alization of these results and to appreciate the complex interaction between genetic inheritance and experience that likely contributed to the association between siblings’ trauma symptoms.

Parenting Figure 1. Plot of significant interaction effect between maternal stress and older sibling trauma on younger sibling trauma.

behavioral and social problems and a range of stressful live events (i.e., minor to major), whereas the present study focused specifi­ cally on child trauma symptoms and major stressful life events. It is also possible that our women survivor participants who had benefited from therapy and were recruited from the community used strategies to protect their children from their own psycholog­ ical distress, as illustrated in earlier work (Levendosky, Lynch, & Graham-Bermann, 2000, p. 260). Although the developmental psychopathology paradigm acknowledges that parents may man­ age their stresses outside the parenting system to shield their children, it is also understood that child risk may be increased when additional contextual stressors are compounded with the stresses of the parent (Kobak, Cassidy, Lyons-Ruth, & Ziv, 2006). We saw evidence of this in our study as high maternal stress in conjunction with older sibling trauma symptoms revealed a sig­ nificant negative association to younger sibling trauma symptoms within IPV-affected families. Congruent with past research (Rossman & Ho, 2000), trauma symptoms were higher in children exposed to IPV than those not exposed. Aside from the violence itself, sibling dynamics contrib­ uted to the symptomatology of these children in a few noteworthy ways. First, maternal negative behavior toward a sibling was related to children’s experience of traumatic stress. While this is consistent with the sensitization hypothesis in which exposure to frequent or intense conflict is believed to sensitize children to subsequent conflict situations with close others (Cummings & Davies, 1994), it is also possible that the children who observed their siblings being the target of their mothers’ negativity feared that they may be next in line. Future work needs to take into account how children’s exposure to negative interactions between their parent and their sibling may influence their adjustment. Second, the trauma symptoms experienced by one sibling were related to the symptoms of the other sibling in IPV-affected families. Although theories of trauma transmission have yet to articulate the actual process of “transmission” and “reception,” Volling and her colleagues (Volling, 2001; Volling, Herrera, &

Women survivors in this study reported high levels of psycho­ logical stress, and yet the frequency of their positive and negative behavior toward their children was comparable to women who had not experienced IPV. Although elevated levels of stress may hinder parents’ capacity to provide available and responsive care, developmental psychopathologists affirm that the degree to which parenting is affected could vary substantially (Kobak et al., 2006). An appreciable body of recent literature suggests that women strive to be “good” mothers in situations of IPV and that they develop a range of strategies to achieve this end (Kelly, 2009). A recent study by Lapierre (2010) illustrated this point. It showed that although some women survivors perceived themselves as “failing” to meet the emotional needs of their children, a few responded by spending more time with their children, listening to them, reassuring them, and engaging them in activity. Although not directly assessed in the community-based sample of women in our study, these may be some of the strategies used by mothers to support their relationships with their children under very challeng­ ing and difficult circumstances. A general research trend supports the notion that differential treatment of siblings is more common in families characterized by marital distress (-Jenkins, Rasbash, & O’Connor, 2003) and that stressful family circumstances may exacerbate the effects of dif­ ferential treatment (Mekos, Hetherington, & Reiss, 1996). Our results documented similar patterns of differential maternal treat­ ment between families with and without a history of IPV, with the exception that mothers directed more positive behavior toward older siblings exposed to IPV. This result was unexpected as earlier research has revealed that the older sibling is usually less likely to receive preferential treatment (Volling & Elins, 1998). Reasons for this positive finding are not apparent and deserve further investigation because our data precluded examination of specific hypotheses and focused solely on differences in maternal behavior rather than children’s perceptions of differential treat­ ment. We suspect, however, that women survivors may have perceived a greater vulnerability in their older children who dem­ onstrated more trauma symptoms, and who were more likely to fully understand the negative consequences of IPV. Some work has suggested that older children will tend to adopt a caregiving role for younger siblings as well as mothers (Mullender et al.,

36

TAILOR, STEWART-TUFESCU, AND PIOTROWSKI

2002) and may therefore be more vulnerable to “parentification” and emotional distress (Goldblatt, 2003).

Limitations and Future Research A few methodological concerns merit discussion. We relied solely on quantitative methods to draw conclusions about siblings exposed to IPV, although incoiporating subjective accounts through qualitative or mixed-method approaches could have of­ fered a more comprehensive understanding of the processes and mechanisms involved in their development (Mullender et al., 2002). Maternal stress and children’s trauma symptoms were as­ sessed by maternal report; therefore, some of the associations found may be accounted for by shared method variance. In addi­ tion, in the case of women survivors of IPV, reports of trauma and stress may be influenced by psychological difficulties, the biases of social desirability, or both (Routh, 1990). Maternal report was also used as a measure of children’s exposure to IPV and focused only on length of exposure. Future research should include an external assessment of the frequency and severity of exposure to violence, as well as the presence or absence of covictimization. Sibling relationship processes and the sibling experience of being exposed to IPV were not directly assessed and should also be considered in future research. Further, the cross-sectional nature of this study limits the degree to which we can assign causality, particularly with respect to temporality. Hence, longitudinal re­ search may be needed to provide confirmation to the inferences made in the present research. Other concerns pertain to our study sample. Although several comparisons were made across older and younger siblings as a group, our modest sample size precluded analysis of within-family variation as well as accurate detection of developmental effects, considering the wide age distribution of children studied. As well, our sample of IPV-affected children recruited from the community were relatively disadvantaged in terms of parental income and education. To this end, future replication with larger heteroge­ neous samples of families with IPV histories, recruited from shel­ ters as well as from the community, may be beneficial. Second, as with most research in the area, we did not include fathers or stepfathers in our study sample. Aymer (2010) has stressed that research with fathers who perpetrate IPV may be particularly important for understanding their sons’ adjustment processes. Ac­ knowledging the difficulties involved in engaging men into re­ search regarding their own violent behavior, the inclusion of fathers, stepfathers, and father figures would provide a more holistic and systemic perspective.

Implications for Clinical Practice Similar to women with no IPV histories, women survivors in the present community sample engaged in positive interactions with their children and appeared to use strategies to protect their chil­ dren and respond to their emotional needs. It is possible that the counseling services these women received worked to enhance their parenting behavior, although such an inference is purely specula­ tive as data regarding counseling were restricted to the length of time women received treatment. Nevertheless, women who expe­ rience IPV reported a high level of life-related stress, suggesting that the heavy emphasis in the literature on the treatment of

parenting behavior (Graham-Bermann & Hughes, 2003) may be somewhat misplaced and that attention may be better focused on interventions that consider stressors outside the parenting system, though this may not be the case for women residing in shelters. Sibling dynamics should also be considered in the treatment of children exposed to IPV. Attention to sibling influences in inter­ ventions with children is a relatively new practice, as siblings have traditionally been relegated to an ancillary position behind that of parents. On the basis of our findings, it is recommended that interventions focus on sibling patterns and processes in IPVaffected families, with special attention to the posttraumatic adap­ tation of each child. However, more research on siblings exposed to IPV is needed to establish treatment procedures that speak directly to the developmental concerns of these children. In summary, our study provided evidence that although family distress in the form of child trauma symptoms and maternal stress may be greater in IPV-affected families than in nonviolent fami­ lies, parenting behavior may remain relatively consistent. This study also made a significant contribution to the literature by examining the influence of maternal stress, together with sibling adjustment, on the posttraumatic adaptation of children exposed to IPV. Although earlier research has called for greater attention to sibling relationships in IPV-affected families (Skopp et al., 2005), and more recently, the interaction between mother-child and sib­ ling relationships (Piotrowski, 2011), very little systematic inquiry has been devoted to the matter. This study represents an important move toward these objectives; however, more work clearly needs to be done if we are to establish a sound empirical basis for the design of effective interventions that can assist in the healing of IPV-affected women and their children.

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Received August 2, 2013 Revision received November 4, 2014 Accepted November 13, 2014 ■

Correction to Sanders (2008) In the article “The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program as a Public Health Approach to Strength­ ening Parenting,” by Matthew R. Sanders (Journal o f Family Psychology, 2008, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 506-517, http://dx.doi.Org/10.1037/0893-3200.22.3.506), the following disclaimer was inadver­ tently omitted from the author note: The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program is owned by the University of Queensland. The university through its main technology transfer company, UniQuest Pty Ltd, has licensed Triple P International Pty Ltd to publish and disseminate the program worldwide. Royalties stemming from published Triple P resources are distributed to the Parenting and Family Support Centre; School of Psychol­ ogy; Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences; and contributory authors. No author has any share or ownership in Triple P International Pty Ltd. Matthew Sanders is the founder and an author on various Triple P programs and a consultant to Triple P International. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000060

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