parenting in south african mothers with a history of family violence shereen moolla and catherine l....
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Parenting in South African mothers with a history of family violence
Shereen Moolla and Catherine L. Ward
Department of PsychologyUniversity of Cape Town
Engineering and the Built Environment: Town planning
Humanities: Anthropology; linguistics; film & media studies;
psychology; religious studies; social development; sociology
Health sciences: Forensic medicine; Gender, Health & Justice Research Unit;
primary health care directorate; psychiatry; public health; surgery
Law Law, Race & Gender Research Unit; criminology; public law
UCT’s Safety and Violence Initiative (SaVI)
Some background on intimate partner violence and child maltreatment in South Africa
Family violence and parenting Methodology for our study Findings:
Demographics Mothers’ histories of family violence Mothers’ parenting Children’s behaviour Risk and protective factors Relationships among variables
Interpretations and implications
This presentation
Nicia de Nobrega, Abigail Miles and Inge Wessels
The Saartjie Baartman Centre, REACH, the New World Foundation, Self-Help Mannenberg, Carehaven, the Westlake Community Centre, Place of Hope, Village Care, and the Islamic Resource Foundation of South Africa
The UCT University Research Committee and the National Research Foundation
Thanks to:
8.8% of men working in the Cape Town municipality report IPV against a partner in the last year (Abrahams et al., 2006)
At least half of female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners (Seedat et al., 2009): In 1999, this was therefore at least 1,899 women, or
12.4 per 100,000 The rate of homicide for women (all causes) is 6x the
average rate worldwide
Intimate partner violence in SA
Child maltreatment in South Africa
44.6% of the homicides due to CAN
35.7% of these due to abandonment in the first week after birth
74% of the CAN homicides among children aged 0-4
Mathews et al., 2012
Increased depression and anxiety
Increased substance misuse
Internalised model of violence as a way to solve problems
Consequences of family violence
Risk factors Protective factors
Intimate partner violence Social support
Parent’s own child maltreatment Higher maternal education
Substance misuse Older maternal age
Parental mental illness Parental competence
Poverty
Parental stress
Risk and protection for parenting
Child behavioural problems
Mothers were recruited from NGOs serving women across Cape Town
Inclusion criteria: Women with a child aged 3-8 The child’s behaviour concerned mother Had not received any parenting intervention
Interviewed 215 women, excluded 12: 4 had children > 8 6 had too much missing data 2 had either a “yes” or a “no” response set
Methodology
Demographics
CTS-2 - intimate partner violence
ICAST-R - history of childhood abuse
PC-CTS - parent/child conflict
ECBI - child behaviour problems
PSOC - parent competence
PSI - parental stress
GHQ - maternal mental health
ASSIST - substance misuse
Duke Social Support Scale
Measures
Mean age: 32.4 years old. Marital status: mostly single (46.80%). Language: mostly Afrikaans and isiXhosa (38.42 % and
42.37%) respectively. Children: 65% had more than one child 82.76% were unemployed Education: 62.56% of the participants had not completed
high school Housing:
53.21% participants lived in formal housing
16.26% l in outbuildings in someone’s backyard 8.87% in shacks 20.20% in flats
13% of the women interviewed were living in shelters for abused women at the time of the interview.
Demographics
Access to electricity, a phone, a television and a private motor-car: 12.32% had access to all four commodities.
Food security: 72.91% had ‘run out of money to buy food at least once that year’
34.48% ‘had to go to bed hungry sometimes’
81% received the child support grant
Poverty
Subscale % n
Psychological Abuse - minor 83.74 170
Psychological Abuse - severe 66.51 135
Physical Abuse - minor 73.40 149
Physical Abuse - severe 53.69 109
Sexual Abuse - minor 43.35 88
Sexual Abuse - severe 22.17 45
Injury - minor 54.19 110
Injury - severe 39.41 80
Mothers’ history of IPV
Type of child abuse n %
Hit, punched or kicked 81 39.9%
Beaten with an object 92 45.3%
Stabbed or cut 20 9.9%
Exposure to other’s genitals 30 14.8%
Forced to pose naked 1 0.5%
Unwanted touching of genitals 30 14.8%
Forced to touch other’s genitals 18 8.9%
Forced sexual intercourse 18 8.9%
Ever told anyone about unwanted sexual experiences
14 6.9%
Mothers’ history of child abuse
What parenting techniques did parents use?
n % Mean SD
Non-Violent Discipline 194 95.57 6.07 3.09
Psychological Aggression 192 94.58 5.87 3.45
Minor Assault 190 93.60 5.22 3.36
Severe Assault 80 39.41 1.14 1.86
Very Severe Assault 34 16.75 0.37 1.01
Children’s behaviour
Intensity Problem
n % n %
Above cut-off 56 27.6 85 41.9
Risk/protective factor n %
High parenting stress scores 196 96.6%
Achieved ‘caseness’ on the GHQ 139 68.5%
Risky use of tobacco 107 52.7%
Risky use of alcohol 47 23.2%
Risky use of cannabis 15 7.4%
Risky use of cocaine 1 0.5%
Risky use of amphetamines 13 6.4%
Risky use of inhalants 1 0.5%
Risky use of sedatives 10 4.9%
At least moderate social support 126 62.1%
Moderate-high parental incompetence 178 87.7%
Other factors
Higher maternal age was associated with child behaviour problems
Running out of money for food was associated with child behaviour problems
Getting income from work was associated with child behaviour problems
Mothers’ histories of family violence were significantly associated with child behaviour problems
This relationship is mediated by parental stress, parent-child conflict and parental competence
But not by maternal mental health, substance misuse, or social support
Relationships among variables
Parent/Child ConflictParent/Child Conflict
Parental IncompetenceParental Incompetence
Parental StressParental Stress
Child Behaviour Problems
Child Behaviour Problems
Family ViolenceFamily
Violence
2 = 8.683; df = 6; p = 0.192; CFI = 0.964; TLI = 0.986; RMSEA = 0.047 (0.000 , 0.110)
CR = 2.040
CR =
10.
308
CR = 4.841CR = 2.992CR = 2.152
If women seek help for parenting, ask about their histories of family violence
If women seek help for family violence, ask about their children’s wellbeing
Prevent child maltreatment and intimate partner violence
Programmes that boost parental competence – parent training programmes – may well reduce parental stress and improve child behaviour
Implications