Using the first four waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this article examined the effects of mothers who experienced domestic violence at Year 1 on the externalizing and internalizing behavior problems of children at Year 5 and investigated whether maternal mental health and parenting at Year 3 mediated those effects. Findings from structural equation modeling showed partial support for the hypothesized mediation effects. Consistent with the spillover hypothesis, domestic violence at Year 1 had a direct effect on maternal mental health at Year 3, which had direct effects on children's externalizing behavior problems at Year 5. Likewise, domestic violence at Year 1 had direct effects on parenting behavior and spanking at Year 3, and both parenting behavior and spanking then had direct effects on children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems at Year 5. Domestic violence at Year 1 had direct effects on children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems at Year 5. These results suggest that there are long-term effects of domestic violence on the behavior problems of preschool-aged children and that early interventions are needed to prevent later problems among children in families experiencing domestic violence.
The issue of domestic violence has been increasingly recognized as a persistent social and public health problem, particularly because of the tremendous, negative effects it has on victims' health and children's well-being (Carlson et al., 2003, Levendosky et al., 2006, Lindhorst et al., 2007, Staggs et al., 2007 and Zlotnick et al., 2006). Although the effects of domestic violence on maternal mental health, parenting, and children's behavior problems have been well established in the literature, most studies have focused on school-age children (Edelson, 1999, Evans et al., 2008, Levendosky and Graham-Bermann, 2001 and Sternberg et al., 1993), and only a few studies have examined the associations for children in early childhood (Carpenter and Stacks, 2009, Levendosky et al., 2006, Litrownik et al., 2003 and Zerk et al., 2009).
Empirical evidence has clearly shown the importance of early childhood experiences to an individual's later development (Graces et al., 2002, Schweinhart, 2005, Walker et al., 1994 and West et al., 2000). Additionally, previous studies have found that there is a high prevalence of domestic violence for low-income women (Catlett and Artis, 2004, Frias and Angel, 2007, Honeycutt et al., 2001, Kenney and McLanahan, 2006, Meisel et al., 2003 and Tolman and Rosen, 2001) and that domestic violence tends to be frequent and increase over the early childhood years (Fantuzzo et al., 1997, Huang et al., 2008 and Layzer et al., 1985). This means that many preschool-aged children are at a high risk of experiencing domestic violence in their household. Given the large number of children being raised in low-income families and the many financial challenges that these families face (Duncan and Brooks-Gunn, 1997 and McLanahan et al., 2003), it is imperative to investigate the effects of domestic violence on the internalizing and externalizing behaviors for preschool-aged children because these outcomes have important effects on children's later development. To this end, this article uses the first four waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine the effects of domestic violence on maternal mental health, parenting, and preschool-aged children's behavior problems. Increasing our understanding of the effects of domestic violence on these three outcomes will aid policymakers and frontline workers of domestic violence prevention programs in their efforts to design and implement intervention strategies for preschool-aged children who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing abuse.
