The Interaction of Maternal Personality Traits and Intimate Partner Violence as Influences on Maternal Representations

Abstract

ABSTRACTMaternal representations of the infant and self‐as‐mother predict attachment security and may be differentially influenced by environmental stressors such as intimate partner violence (IPV), but no study has yet examined potential direct and interactive effects of maternal personality. Maternal representations (Working Model of the Child Interview; C.H. Zeanah, D. Benoit, L. Hirshberg, M.L. Barton, & C. Regan, 1994), maternal personality (Revised NEO Personality Inventory; P.T. Costa & R.R. McCrae, 1992), and experiences of domestic violence (Severity of Violence Against Women Scales; L. Marshall, 1992) were assessed in a community sample of 180 women during pregnancy and 1 year postpartum. Logistic regression analyses assessed main and interaction effects of personality traits and IPV exposure on maternal representations in pregnancy and stability and change over the first year of life. Maternal openness and agreeableness increased the odds of balanced prenatal representations while extraversion predicted change from nonbalanced to balanced representations when the child was age 1 year. The relationship with conscientiousness and openness was moderated by IPV exposure. The authors conclude that the interaction of IPV and maternal personality has significant implications for the earliest substrates of parenting. Future research may include maternal personality variables to further explicate their role as broad predictors of caregiving representations. Clarification of the role of neuroticism is needed. These findings may inform the development of family‐based interventions targeting caregiving and insecure attachment relationships.