TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - Mothers' experience of intimate partner violence and subsequent offspring attachment security ages 1-5 years: a meta-analysis JO - Trauma, violence, and abuse A1 - McIntosh, Jennifer E. A1 - Tan, Evelyn S. A1 - Levendosky, Alytia A. A1 - Holtzworth-Munroe, Amy SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Attachment status in early childhood is a key yet modifiable contributor to the development of social-emotional competence. The security and organization of the infant-mother attachment bond is particularly susceptible to stressors in the caregiving environment. While the impacts of normative interparental conflict on infant attachment are increasingly understood, the potentially unique place of intimate partner violence (IPV) in this pathway has been under-researched. This study surveyed all empirical work in this area, including unpublished literature (k = 6, N = 3,394), to examine meta-analytic associations between maternal experiences of IPV and offspring attachment security (ages 1-5 years) measured at least 6 months post-IPV exposure. Mothers' reports of IPV from pregnancy onward were inversely associated with offspring attachment security, r = -.23, CI [-0.42, -0.04], p =.02. Sample risk characteristics (e.g., clinical vs. community) moderated this association; child's age at attachment measurement and method of assessing child attachment (e.g., observational, representational, parent report) also moderated at a trend level. Implications for early screening, intervention, and future research are discussed.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1524-8380 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1524838019888560 ID - ref1 ER -