Faculty Publications

Relationships Between Adult Women's Mental Health Problems And Their Childhood Experiences Of Parental Violence And Psychological Aggression

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Anxiety, Depression, Physical abuse, Psychological abuse, Women

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Family Violence

Volume

21

Issue

7

First Page

439

Last Page

447

Abstract

We used the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (M. A. Straus, S. L. Hamby, D. Finkelhor, D. W. Moore, & D. Runyan, 1998) to assess retrospectively women's childhood experiences of both mother and father physical abuse and psychological aggression, and assessed mother and father alcohol problems based on criteria derived from the Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria (N. C. Andreasen, J. Endicott, R. L. Spitzer, & G. Winokur, 1977). Data were collected from 447 women (age 18 or higher) from seven domestic violence programs and five substance use disorder treatment programs in a midwestern state. Using OLS regression with backward elimination (p < .10 as criterion for removal from the equation) we found that higher levels of mother physical abuse, father psychological aggression, and presence of mother alcohol problems predicted higher scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Trauma Symptom Checklist. Higher levels of mother physical abuse and father psychological aggression predicted higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.

Department

Department of Social Work

Original Publication Date

10-1-2006

DOI of published version

10.1007/s10896-006-9041-3

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