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Violence Exposure as a Mediator Between Parenting and Adolescent Mental Health

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Anat Moed at Bar Ilan University
Anat Moed
Elizabeth T Gershoff
Elizabeth T Gershoff
Elizabeth T Gershoff
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Elizabeth H. Bringewatt at Child Trends
Elizabeth H. Bringewatt
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Abstract

For youth exposed to community violence, parenting has been found to play a significant role in protecting adolescents from associated mental health symptoms. Yet little is known about the potential of parenting to prevent such exposure in the first place and thereby reduce the likelihood of adolescents’ mental health symptoms. This study examined two parental practices that have often been examined as moderators, but not yet as predictors, of youth exposure to community violence associations with adolescent mental health, namely parental control and parental harshness. Analyses of self-reported data from 908 adolescents (M age = 16.5, SD = 1.71; 52 % girls; 13 % non-Hispanic White) revealed that harsh parenting was indirectly associated with youth mental health symptoms through higher levels of exposure to community violence, whereas links between controlling parenting and mental health symptoms were either non-significant or mediated through lower levels of adolescent violence exposure. These findings highlight the potential positive role parental control may play by preventing adolescents from exposure to potentially dangerous situations. Conversely, our results suggest that harsh parenting appears to pose a risk for adolescents by driving youth away from the home environment and potentially into places where violence may be more prevalent.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Violence Exposure as a Mediator Between Parenting
and Adolescent Mental Health
Anat Moed
1
•Elizabeth T. Gershoff
1
•Elizabeth H. Bringewatt
2
Published online: 12 March 2016
ÓSpringer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract For youth exposed to community violence,
parenting has been found to play a significant role in pro-
tecting adolescents from associated mental health symp-
toms. Yet little is known about the potential of parenting to
prevent such exposure in the first place and thereby reduce
the likelihood of adolescents’ mental health symptoms.
This study examined two parental practices that have often
been examined as moderators, but not yet as predictors, of
youth exposure to community violence associations with
adolescent mental health, namely parental control and
parental harshness. Analyses of self-reported data from 908
adolescents (M
age
=16.5, SD =1.71; 52 % girls; 13 %
non-Hispanic White) revealed that harsh parenting was
indirectly associated with youth mental health symptoms
through higher levels of exposure to community violence,
whereas links between controlling parenting and mental
health symptoms were either non-significant or mediated
through lower levels of adolescent violence exposure.
These findings highlight the potential positive role parental
control may play by preventing adolescents from exposure
to potentially dangerous situations. Conversely, our results
suggest that harsh parenting appears to pose a risk for
adolescents by driving youth away from the home envi-
ronment and potentially into places where violence may be
more prevalent.
Keywords Controlling parenting Harsh parenting
Violence exposure Youth mental health
Introduction
Youth exposure to community violence (i.e., witnessing or
receiving a violent act with or without the intention to
cause physical or psychological harm; [28] has been found
to be related to a number of problematic mental health
symptoms such as post-traumatic stress, symptoms of
anxiety and depression, and aggressive behavior (e.g., [37,
54]). However, it is widely agreed that parenting plays a
significant role in protecting adolescents from such nega-
tive effects [18,53]. Specifically, past research has found
that parents tend to compensate for potential violence in
their community by employing parental behaviors that aim
to restrict their adolescents’ companions, activities, and
whereabouts (e.g., [23,26]). One way in which parents
restrict their adolescents is by exercising parental control to
keep their adolescents safe from potential danger. Parental
control is the degree to which the parent attempts to
manage or direct adolescents, in a way that provides ado-
lescents with a clear set of guidelines, expectations, and
standards of behaviors. As such, during the vulnerable
adolescence years (e.g., [51]), parental control allows
parents to exert positive socialization pressures, in a way
that may benefit adolescents’ well-being. For example,
parents may use software tools to monitor their child’s
online social network and track their cell-phones. Con-
trolling parents may also follow their adolescents, screen
&Anat Moed
moed@utexas.edu
Elizabeth T. Gershoff
liz.gershoff@austin.utexas.edu
Elizabeth H. Bringewatt
ebringewatt@childtrends.org
1
Human Development and Family Sciences, University of
Texas at Austin, 108 E. Dean Keaton, Stop 2702, Austin,
TX 78712, USA
2
Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200W, Bethesda,
MD 20814, USA
123
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2017) 48:235–247
DOI 10.1007/s10578-016-0636-5
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Findings also indicated associations between ECV and various socioemotional outcomes. For example, ECV was cross-sectionally associated with anxiety (Moed et al., 2017), global impairment (López et al., 2009), and diagnoses per criteria in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; Lopez et al., 2009), including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Fishbein et al., 2009) and disruptive disorders (López et al., 2009). Results from both cross-sectional and prospective studies revealed that ECV was associated with depression (Bennet & Joe, 2015;Buzi et al., 2015;Epstein-Ngo et al., 2013;Kennedy & Ceballo, 2013;Moed et al., 2017;Shukla & Wiesner, 2015;Russell et al., 2016), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Aisenberg et al., 2008;Epstein-Ngo et al., 2013;Gudiño, 2013;Gudiño et al., 2011Gudiño et al., , 2012Gudiño et al., , 2018Kataoka et al., 2009;Kennedy & Ceballo, 2013;Moed et al., 2017), and suicidal ideation or suicidal attempt (Behnken et al., 2010;Borowsky et al., 2001). ...
... For example, ECV was cross-sectionally associated with anxiety (Moed et al., 2017), global impairment (López et al., 2009), and diagnoses per criteria in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; Lopez et al., 2009), including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Fishbein et al., 2009) and disruptive disorders (López et al., 2009). Results from both cross-sectional and prospective studies revealed that ECV was associated with depression (Bennet & Joe, 2015;Buzi et al., 2015;Epstein-Ngo et al., 2013;Kennedy & Ceballo, 2013;Moed et al., 2017;Shukla & Wiesner, 2015;Russell et al., 2016), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Aisenberg et al., 2008;Epstein-Ngo et al., 2013;Gudiño, 2013;Gudiño et al., 2011Gudiño et al., , 2012Gudiño et al., , 2018Kataoka et al., 2009;Kennedy & Ceballo, 2013;Moed et al., 2017), and suicidal ideation or suicidal attempt (Behnken et al., 2010;Borowsky et al., 2001). Last, among prospective studies, ECV was associated with selfregulation (Atherton et al., 2020), psychological distress (Reid & Loughran, 2018), antisocial personality disorder (Baskin-Sommers et al., 2016), and psychopathy (Baskin-Sommers et al., 2016). ...
... For example, ECV was cross-sectionally associated with anxiety (Moed et al., 2017), global impairment (López et al., 2009), and diagnoses per criteria in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; Lopez et al., 2009), including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Fishbein et al., 2009) and disruptive disorders (López et al., 2009). Results from both cross-sectional and prospective studies revealed that ECV was associated with depression (Bennet & Joe, 2015;Buzi et al., 2015;Epstein-Ngo et al., 2013;Kennedy & Ceballo, 2013;Moed et al., 2017;Shukla & Wiesner, 2015;Russell et al., 2016), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Aisenberg et al., 2008;Epstein-Ngo et al., 2013;Gudiño, 2013;Gudiño et al., 2011Gudiño et al., , 2012Gudiño et al., , 2018Kataoka et al., 2009;Kennedy & Ceballo, 2013;Moed et al., 2017), and suicidal ideation or suicidal attempt (Behnken et al., 2010;Borowsky et al., 2001). Last, among prospective studies, ECV was associated with selfregulation (Atherton et al., 2020), psychological distress (Reid & Loughran, 2018), antisocial personality disorder (Baskin-Sommers et al., 2016), and psychopathy (Baskin-Sommers et al., 2016). ...
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... One possible explanation for these findings is that these behaviours served as adaptive responses to prevent violence against girls in the short and medium term, given IDP families' lived experiences of resource scarcity, poverty, and protracted violence in Maiduguri. Research on parenting practices in various conflict-affected settings corroborates these findings; recent studies from high income settings show that parents employ various strategies to control their adolescents' mobility, relationships, and activities to prevent their potential exposure to community violence [65][66][67]. Other studies show that some parents elect to harshly punish adolescents as a way to eradicate behaviour they believe could lead to future exposure to violence [68]. ...
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... Fewer studies have examined whether parenting behaviors may protect against community violence exposure and provide contradicting conclusions (Gorman- Smith and Tolan, 1998;Sheidow et al., 2001;Gorman-Smith, Henry and Tolan, 2004;Lambert et al., 2015;Moed, Gershoff and Bringewatt, 2017). Gorman-Smith, Henry, and Tolan (2004) and Sheidow, Gorman-Smith, Tolan, and Henry (2001) found that poor family functioning was a risk factor for African-American and Latinx children's exposure to violence, but only within communities facing extreme social and economic problems. ...
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