Citation

Rassart CA, Paradis A, Bergeron S, Godbout N. Child Abuse Negl. 2022; 129: e105638.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105638

PMID

35468316

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The birth of a child is a life-defining event which tends to widen the gap between parents' resources and the demands they face, generating parenting stress. In this regard, individuals who experienced childhood trauma, particularly cumulative childhood interpersonal trauma (CCIT), appear more vulnerable, with higher rates of parenting stress. However, dyadic studies are lacking and the mechanisms explaining the association between CCIT and parenting stress remain unknown, limiting the promotion of resilience in parental couples.

OBJECTIVE: Based on the Self-Trauma Model and the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, this study examined the role of self-capacities disturbances (i.e., affect dysregulation, identity impairment and interpersonal conflicts) in the association uniting CCIT and parenting stress. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS: A randomly selected sample of 421 parental couples of an infant.

METHODS: Participants completed self-reported measures online.

RESULTS: Path analyses revealed that CCIT was associated to greater parenting stress through affect dysregulation and identity impairment, in both mothers and fathers (R(2) = 22.4%; 20.7%). APIM modeling revealed a dyadic association between mothers' proneness to interpersonal conflicts and fathers' parenting stress, in addition to indirect effects involving all three self-capacities in the associations between one parent's CCIT and their partner's parenting stress.

CONCLUSIONS: CCIT-exposed individuals may experience parenting stress through difficulties with self-capacities at the individual and dyadic level, highlighting these capacities as promising intervention targets during the postpartum period, and emphasizing the need to involve both parents since intricate dyadic patterns may be at play.

Language: en

Keywords

Childhood interpersonal trauma; Parenting stress; Self-capacities