The Association of Prenatal Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence with Children’s Socioemotional Competence at Five Years Postpartum

Abstract Purpose Limited research on social functioning hinders understanding of the developmental effects of prenatal intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure. We examined the association between prenatal IPV exposure and children’s socioemotional competence during the preschool years, exploring maternal sense of mastery, depressive symptoms, and postnatal IPV exposure as potential pathways. Methods Participants included 2,309 mother-child dyads from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Socioemotional competence was assessed using the caregiver-reported Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory at child age 5, while prenatal IPV exposure was mother-reported at childbirth. Maternal sense of mastery, depressive symptoms, and postnatal IPV exposure were assessed when the child was 3 years old. Structural path modeling was used to estimate direct and indirect paths from prenatal IPV exposure to children’s socioemotional competence via maternal sense of mastery, maternal depressive symptoms, and postnatal IPV exposure, adjusting for child sex, maternal race/ethnicity, age and education and household income. Results Prenatal IPV exposure was negatively associated with maternal sense of mastery at 3-year postpartum ( β =-0.084, p < .001). In turn, lower levels of maternal mastery were associated with lower levels of children’s socioemotional competence at 5 years ( β = 0.116, p < .001), yielding a significant indirect association ( β =-0.010, 95%CI=-0.123-0.034). Although prenatal IPV exposure was associated with maternal depressive symptoms ( β = 0.118, p < .001) and postnatal IPV exposure ( β = 0.352, p < .001), the pathways to socioemotional competence were not significant. Conclusions Findings highlight the importance of trauma-informed, empowerment-focused perinatal interventions that strengthen maternal adaptive coping and parenting strategies to support socioemotional development in the context of prenatal IPV exposure.