Psychological intimate partner violence, child witnessing of parental arguments, and emotional-behavioral outcomes in five-years old: The French ELFE cohort

International audience

Inglés. Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with children's emotional and behavioral difficulties. Psychological-IPV (P-IPV) is most common, and occurs alone or along other forms of IPV. Little is known about the longitudinal course of P-IPV exposure and its consequences on children taking into account whether or not they are present during parental arguments.Objective: To identify longitudinal trajectories of P-IPV from preconception through the child's second year of life and examine associations with children's emotional-behavioral outcomes at age five years, depending on the child's presence during parental arguments in the second year of life.Participants and setting: Data from the nationally representative French birth cohort ELFE including children born in 2011 were used.Methods: P-IPV exposure was assessed before conception, during pregnancy, at two months and at two years postpartum. Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at five years. Group-based trajectory modelling was used to identify P-IPV trajectories. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to study the relationship between P-IPV trajectories and SDQ.Results: 9639 children were included. Five trajectories of exposure to P-IPV were identified: minimal (70.6 %), prenatal (10.0 %), increasing (6.4 %), decreasing (7.5 %), persistent (5.5 %). Persistent and decreasing P-IPV trajectories and frequent child presence during parental arguments were associated with children's increased odds of having abnormal total SDQ scores (OR 2.31 95 % CI 1.54-3.47; OR 1.64 95%CI: 1.11-2.43; OR 1.88 95%CI:1.17-3.02, respectively).Conclusions: Early identification and consideration of children living in a home where IPV occurs could allow provision of timely and appropriate support.