Child maltreatment, maternal parenting and use of parenting services among intimate partner violence victims involved with child protective services

The main focus of this study was to examine the association between intimate partner violence and various dimensions of maternal parenting among families involved with Child Protective Services (CPS). Data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a national probability sample of children investigated for child maltreatment, were analyzed. This research had three aims. The first aim was to examine whether mothers' experiences of intimate partner violence are associated with repeated referrals of the mothers to CPS for child maltreatment. The odds of rereferral for child maltreatment for mothers who experienced intimate partner violence were twice those of mothers who had never experienced intimate partner violence (OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.1-3.4). The second aim was to examine whether mothers' experiences of intimate partner violence are associated with the quality of maternal parenting and maternal use of spanking as measured by the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Short Form (HOME-SF). Women who experienced intimate partner violence in the past, but not currently, had slightly higher (better) scores concerning parental responsiveness and learning stimulation than currently abused women, while there were no significant differences between women who were currently experiencing intimate partner violence and women who had never experienced intimate partner violence. The third aim of this study was to determine whether parenting services provided to mothers by Child Welfare Services are associated with changes in the quality of maternal parenting and maternal use of spanking. This study found that there appears to be some modest benefits in Parental Responsiveness and Total HOME-SF scores for mother of 3 to 5 year old children who received parenting services compared to mothers who did not receive parenting services, nevertheless, these findings could not be confirmed with multivariate analysis. In conclusion, the higher risk of repeated referrals to CPS associated with intimate partner violence highlights the needs of mothers abused by an intimate partner to receive services to end their own abuse and to stop them from abusing their children, while parenting services should be offered based on a case by case evaluation of woman's parenting skills.