Violence conjugale, stress maternel et développement de l’enfant

This research aims to evaluate the socioaffective development of children exposed to domestic violence. It aims especially to determine whether this socioaffective profile changes depending on whether the mother has left the violent husband or not, as well as measure maternal stress. Thirty-eight mother-child couples participated in the study. In order to evaluate the socioaffective development of the child, the referents of the leisure centre were asked to complete the questionnaire Socioemotional Profile (Dumas, LaFrenière, Capuano & Durning, 1997). Maternal stress was also studied through the abridged version of “Parenting Stress Index” (Lacharité, 1993) supplemented by mothers. Results show that the difficulties of the child are greater when the mother still lives with the violent spouse than when she left him. Results also indicate that the higher the maternal stress the more the socioaffective adaptation of the child is threatened. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)