Citation

Jobe-Shields L, Swiecicki CC, Fritz DR, Stinnette JS, Hanson RF. J. Child Sex. Abus. 2016; 25(1): 110-125.

Affiliation

a National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center , Medical University of South Carolina , Charleston , South Carolina, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10538712.2015.1078867

PMID

26808966

PMCID

PMC4891980

Abstract

Caregiver mental health is a known correlate of parenting practices, and recent research indicated that parental depression following childhood sexual abuse disclosure is associated with concurrent parenting difficulties. The present study extended this line of research by investigating posttraumatic stress symptoms and depression in a sample of caregivers (N = 96) of children who experienced sexual abuse recruited from a child advocacy center as well as parenting practices reported by both caregivers and their children (mean age = 10.79 years, SD = 3.29; 79% female). Twenty-four percent of caregivers met criteria for presumptive clinical depression, clinically significant posttraumatic stress, or both.

RESULTS indicated elevated caregiver-reported inconsistent parenting in the context of clinically significant distress across symptom groups; children reported particularly elevated inconsistent parenting for caregivers with posttraumatic stress only. Caregiver depression was associated with low self-reported positive parenting and caregiver involvement in addition to self-reported inconsistencies. Directions for future research are offered to further elucidate the relationships between caregiver mental health and parenting practices following childhood sexual abuse.

Language: en