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Psychosocial Resources Predicting Maternal and Paternal Positive Parenting and Lower Child Abuse Risk

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Abstract

Young children have the highest victimization rates of physical abuse in their first year of life, making up nearly half of all child abuse–related fatalities. More effective prevention is needed to reduce child victimization, yet many risk reduction models rely on problematic inclusion criteria, only intervene after maltreatment has occurred, or focus only on mothers. More proactive prevention models that promote positive parenting practices early in the transition to parenthood could be key to reducing child maltreatment. The current study sought to assess how both mothers’ and fathers’ psychosocial resources (e.g., emotion regulation, coping, and social support) and empathy can predict positive parenting and predict lower child abuse risk across time in a cross-lagged model. Parenting and abuse risk were examined prenatally, through the transition into parenthood, until children were 4 years old. First time mothers and their partners were recruited in the third trimester of pregnancy and assessed again when children were 6 months, 18 months, and 4 years old. Separate path models for mothers and fathers analyzed whether psychosocial resources and empathy at earlier timepoints predicted their positive parenting and lower abuse risk by the time children were age 4. Findings demonstrated that mothers’ earlier empathy predicted later positive parenting and earlier positive parenting predicted later empathy. Fathers’ lower prenatal abuse risk predicted greater subsequent empathy. Both mothers’ and fathers’ psychosocial resources and empathy at earlier timepoints predicted later positive parenting. Parents’ psychosocial resources can be integral assets in positive, effective parenting approaches both concurrently and longitudinally. Mothers’ and fathers’ resources are an important point of intervention prior to and during the transition into parenthood to support healthier families that would confer benefits to child functioning.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our participating families and participating Obstetrics/Gynecology clinics that facilitated recruitment.

Funding

This research was supported by award number R15HD071431 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the second author, and by award number TL1TR003106 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to the first author. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This project was also supported by the Jesse B. Milby Endowed Support Fund; Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant; American Psychological Foundation Annette Urso Rickel Foundation Dissertation Award; and American Psychological Association, Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice Section on Child Maltreatment Dissertation Grant.

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  1. University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA

    Samantha Gonzalez

  2. Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, 250 Mills Godwin Life Sciences Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

    Christina M. Rodriguez

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  1. Samantha Gonzalez
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Correspondence to Christina M. Rodriguez.

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The study was approved by the University of Alabama at Birmingham IRB#130626002 and performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Gonzalez, S., Rodriguez, C.M. Psychosocial Resources Predicting Maternal and Paternal Positive Parenting and Lower Child Abuse Risk. Prev Sci 24, 186–197 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01483-0

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