Maternal History of Childhood Trauma, Parenting Stress and Home Environment Provided For Children

At any given time there are many thousands of mothers in the United States who have a history of traumatic childhood experience. In a community sample of 218 biological mothers the relationship between severity of maternal history of childhood trauma and quality of home environment provided for children was examined. The study also explored the impact of current exposure to violence, current substance use, perceived social support, and avoidant coping style on levels of parentingstress experienced, and asked whether parenting stress mediated the relationship between severity of maternal history of childhood trauma and the quality of home environment provided children. The study was a secondary data analysis, and data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. In this sample, severity of history of maternal childhood trauma was not found to predict quality of home environment provided children. However, increased maternal verbal ability, higher levels of maternal mental health, higher income, and fewer children < 18 years old living in the household did predict increased quality of home environment provided. Increased levels of perceived social support and of maternal mental health predicted lower levels of parenting stress, though current exposure to violence, current substance use, and avoidant coping were not predictive of parenting stress. An increased incidence of potentially traumatogenic experiences in childhood was positively associated with higher levels of parenting stress, and higher levels of parenting stress, in turn, were associated with a diminished quality of home environment provided children. Implications of findings for future research and for social work policy and practice are discussed.