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 factorsIntimate partner violence Social supportParent’s own child maltreatment Higher maternal educationSubstance misuse Older maternal ageParental mental illness Parental competencePovertyParental 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 % nPsychological Abuse - minor 83.74 170

Psychological Abuse - severe 66.51 135

Physical Abuse - minor 73.40 149Physical Abuse - severe 53.69 109Sexual Abuse - minor 43.35 88Sexual Abuse - severe 22.17 45Injury - minor 54.19 110Injury - 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 SDNon-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 Problemn % 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 Conflict

Parental Incompetence

Parental Stress

Child Behaviour Problems

Family 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