Examining the Moderating Effects of Therapy Attendance on Prenatal Parenting Attitudes Among IPV-Exposed Mothers with Histories of Child Maltreatment

Mothers with histories of childhood maltreatment (CM) are at risk for victimization in adulthood [e.g., intimate partner violence (IPV)] and may endorse parenting attitudes associated with future CM perpetration. Therapy attendance could interrupt this intergenerational cycle of violence. Participants were 137 IPV-exposed, pregnant mothers ( M age = 27.29, SD = 6.00; 66.9% Black) recruited from the Midsouth and Midwest, United States. Hierarchical regression analyses assessed direct effects of CM, as well as the interaction between CM and therapy attendance, on prenatal attitudes about expectations of children, empathy, corporal punishment, and parent-child roles. Therapy attendance ( β = 0.82, p = .004) and fewer CM experiences ( β = -0.22, p = .014) were directly linked to developmentally appropriate expectations of children. For women who had never attended therapy, less CM exposure was associated with more appropriate expectations of children ( t = -3.32, p = .001). Therapy attendance significantly moderated the association between CM and parental empathy ( β = 0.52, p = .021); for women who had never attended therapy, more CM experiences were associated with lower empathy ( t = -2.25, p = .026). Fewer CM experiences ( β = -0.22, p = .039) and therapy attendance ( β = 0.93, p = .006) were each associated with lower risk for corporal punishment; greater maternal IPV frequency was associated with less risk for corporal punishment ( β = 0.002, p = .050). Therapy attendance ( β = 1.12, p = .007) was associated with a more appropriate understanding of parent-child roles. Results show that attending therapy is associated with several parenting attitudes for pregnant mothers with histories of maltreatment. Findings can be used to inform prenatal parenting interventions with mother’s exposed to IPV that are aimed at preventing the intergenerational transmission of violence.