Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1007/s10896-024-00799-5

Publication Title

Journal of Family Violence

Volume

Article in Press

Pages

13 pp.

Abstract

Purpose

Personal history of parent-child aggression (PCA) can predict future parenting behavior, but some effects may differ between racial groups. Black parents in the U.S. are more likely to encounter discrimination and personally experience and approve of PCA, which may account for previously reported group differences. This study examined whether personal PCA history predicted later parental child abuse risk mediated by PCA approval across the transition to parenthood, and whether effects differed by race.

Methods

Expectant parents (non-Hispanic White sample: 95 mothers with 86 fathers; Black sample: 94 mothers with 85 fathers) participated in a prospective longitudinal study, assessed prenatally and when children were age 6 mo., 18 mo., and four years. Personal history of PCA was assessed retrospectively, PCA approval was evaluated at each timepoint; and abuse risk was assessed as both theoretical abuse risk (an analog task at all timepoints) and actual PCA use (parents' report at the final two timepoints).

Results

Personal PCA history largely predicted PCA approval for Black parents but was inconsistent for White parents. Higher PCA approval predicted abuse risk for both groups but appears to be a more consistent mediator between personal PCA history and abuse risk for Black parents.

Conclusions

Findings suggest PCA approval may perpetuate the PCA cycle but future work needs to consider differential effects by race, socioeconomic status, and age and identify factors that may account for such differences. Abuse preventions should be more intentionally culturally informed to enhance efficacy for communities of color.

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "Upon request."

Original Publication Citation

Morgan, C. H., Rodriguez, C. M., Pu, D. F., & Elkins, Z. O. (2025). Approval of parent-child aggression as a mediator of intergenerational child abuse risk: An evaluation of racial differences. Journal of Family Violence. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-024-00799-5

ORCID

0000-0002-5090-0707 (Rodriguez)

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