ABSTRACT
This paper uses data from a representative sample (N = 443) of mothers with pre-school and school-age children who were randomly selected from the welfare caseload in one urban county in Michigan 76in early 1997. We investigate how mothers’ experiences of severe physical abuse relate to maternal reports of children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Mothers experiencing domestic violence did not differ from other mothers on punitive discipline or emotional warmth towards their children, but they did experience more parenting stress and had higher rates of mental health and substance abuse disorders. Controlling for an array of demographic characteristics, results suggest that children of abused mothers display significantly higher levels of externalizing, but not internalizing, behavior problems. The association of domestic violence and externalizing behaviors is only partially mediated by maternal psychological characteristics.
