Patterns of intimate partner violence exposure across the first 10 years of life and children's emotional-behavioural outcomes at 10 years

Alison Fogarty; Stephanie Brown; Deirdre Gartland; Grace McMahon; Kelly FitzPatrick; Monique Seymour; Melissa Kimber; Harriet MacMillan; Rebecca Giallo

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106814

Patterns of intimate partner violence exposure across the first 10 years of life and children's emotional-behavioural outcomes at 10 years

Child Abuse Negl. 2024 May 2:153:106814. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106814. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Alison Fogarty¹, Stephanie Brown², Deirdre Gartland³, Grace McMahon⁴, Kelly FitzPatrick⁴, Monique Seymour⁵, Melissa Kimber⁶, Harriet MacMillan⁷, Rebecca Giallo⁸

Affiliations

¹ Intergenerational Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong 3125, Australia. Electronic address: ali.fogarty@mcri.edu.au.
² Intergenerational Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, 780 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 3010, Australia.
³ Intergenerational Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia.
⁴ Intergenerational Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia.
⁵ Intergenerational Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong 3125, Australia.
⁶ Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Faculty of Health Sciences, Oxford Centre for Child Studies, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Faculty of Health Sciences, Oxford Centre for Child Studies, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Pediatrics, Faculty of Health Sciences McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Intergenerational Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville 3052, Australia; School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong 3125, Australia.

PMID: 38701670
DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106814

Abstract

Background: Childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with emotional-behavioural problems. However, little is known about children's emotional-behavioural outcomes following exposure to different long-term patterns of IPV.

Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the emotional-behavioural functioning of children at 10 years of age following exposure to different patterns of IPV across the first 10 years of life.

Participants and setting: Data for this study was drawn from the Mothers' and Young People's Study- a longitudinal study of 1507 first time mothers and their first born child.

Methods: Women were recruited during pregnancy from six public hospitals in Victoria, Australia. Data was collected during pregnancy, and at one, four and ten years postpartum. Four patterns of IPV exposure were previously identified: (a) minimal IPV exposure; (b) early IPV; (c) Increasing IPV; and (d) persistent IPV. Logistic regression was used to assess associations between IPV exposure and emotional-behavioural outcomes.

Results: Exposure to early, increasing, or persistent IPV was associated with increased odds of experiencing emotional-behavioural difficulties (OR 2.15-2.97). Children exposed to a persistent pattern of IPV experienced over 6 times the odds of conduct problems (OR = 6.15 CI = 2.3-16.44).

Conclusions: Children exposed to early, increasing, or persistent IPV experienced increased odds of emotional-behavioural problems at age 10, regardless of the duration or type of violence they were exposed to. However, children exposed to persistent IPV across childhood appeared to experience the highest odds of emotional-behavioural difficulties.

Keywords: Child; Emotional behavioural problems; Intimate partner violence; Longitudinal studies.