Childhood Sexual Abuse and Adulthood Parenting: The Mediating Role of Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

This study examined the role of intimate partner victimization in mediating the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adulthood parenting in a community sample of mothers reliant on public assistance (N = 483). Baron and Kenny's (1986 Baron, R. M. and Kenny, D. A. 1986. The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 1173–1182. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) method for establishing mediation was used to address this question. A recent history of intimate partner violence mediated the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and psychological aggression; however, a lifetime history of intimate partner violence did not. Depressive symptomatology was found to mediate the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and parental warmth. The impact of childhood sexual abuse on corporal punishment was indirect through its association with childhood physical abuse and witnessing domestic violence. Implications for research, theory development, and practice are provided.