How domestically violent Fathers impact children’s social-emotional development: Fathers’ psychological functioning, parenting, and coparenting

Abstract

BackgroundMost children exposed to father-perpetrated domestic violence (DV) continue to have contact or live with fathers, yet there is little research on the impact of fathering in the context of domestic violence. ObjectiveThis paper aimed to identify pathways from children’s exposure to father-perpetrated DV to compromised social-emotional outcomes. Based on extant literature on fathering and domestic violence, psychological, parenting, and coparenting features in DV fathers were identified as potential mediators of the relationship between child exposure to DV and their social-emotional outcomes. Participants and SettingParticipants were 123 fathers with confirmed histories of DV perpetration and 101 comparison fathers without such histories. MethodsFathers completed self-report measures during two assessment sessions held at the university. Simple mediation analyses were used to examine pathways between fathers’ DV perpetration and child internalizing and externalizing difficulties through potential mediators. ResultsPaternal depression, hostility, and coparenting difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between child exposure to DV and child internalizing and externalizing difficulties. Low paternal warmth was associated with child externalizing difficulties but did not function as a mediator. Paternal over-reactivity and laxness, in contrast, were not significantly correlated with DV perpetration or with child internalizing or externalizing outcomes. ConclusionsThis study suggests that fathers’ emotion regulation and coparenting difficulties are important correlates of his DV perpetration and of their children’s psychological symptoms and should be considered as potential foci for parenting intervention with this population.