parenting stress

8/14/2019 Parenting Stress

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children. The majority of studies regarding parenting and domestic violence

have beenconductedwithbatteredwomen (Henderson,1993;Hughes, 1982;

Levendosky & Graham-Bermann, 1998; Levendosky, Lynch, & Graham-

Bermann, 2000; Ritchie & Holden, 1998; Sullivan et al., 1997; Weaver,

1993).Theresearch in this area hasproduced mixed findings: poor parenting

practicesin some cases (Hughes,1982)andwarm,nurturing parentingin oth-

ers (Sullivan et al., 1997). With few exceptions (e.g., Levendosky & Graham-

Bermann, 1998), studies have notexaminedseparately theeffects of psycho-

logical andphysical abuseon parenting. This distinction could be important,

given that women often experience different types of abuse, which mayhave

different effects on parenting outcomes. Knowledge about these differences

could be helpful in programs and interventions that target women who have

been abused.It is interesting tonote thepaucityof studies regarding male batterers per-

ceptions of their parenting, given what is known about the relation between

partner abuse and child abuse. Studies have documented that children are

present in 40% to 70% of all violent episodes and that if the mother is experi-

encing abuse, the child is more likely to be the target of abuse as well

(Edleson, 1999; Stark & Flitcraft, 1988; Suh & Abel, 1990). Even if men do

not physically abuse their children, they can be defined as psychologically

abusive, as they areresponsiblefor theirchildrens exposureto violence.As a

result, men may feel stress associated with parenting, as well as feelings of

parental incompetence. Consistent with Hobfalls (1989) conservation of

resources model for conceptualizing stress, parenting stress may be associ-

ated with an environment in which loss occurs (e.g., actual loss such as time

or finances as well as the absence of expected gains from the parenting rolesuch as closeness and affection). In addition, feelings of parenting incompe-

tence may result when abusive men lack satisfaction with the quality of their

child-rearing skills (e.g., feel they yell too much, are too critical, or do not

give enough positive attention to their children).

To our knowledge, no empirical evidence is available as to whether there

is an association between mens abusive behavior and their reports of

parenting stress and competence. Rather, published studies have examined

male batterers behaviors toward their children, with results suggesting that

they tend to be more inconsistent andharsher in their discipline than battered

women (Holden & Ritchie, 1991; Jouriles & Norwood, 1995). In these stud-

ies, data were obtained from mothers reports of fathers behavior. Not only

were fathers excluded, but also the focus was on parenting behavior. In the

present study, we were interested in fathers and mothers perceptions ofstress and competence as parents, which can only be reported by the person

himself or herself.

1140 JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE / November 2001


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Although it is notcomparable directly with marital violence,some insight

can be drawn from the literature on marital conflict, where relationship

dynamics are similar. Conflict between couples can lead to stress, and such

stresscancompromise parenting. There have been general studies on marital

conflictandparent-child relationshipswithresults suggestingthat competent

parenting strategies are difficult to achieve in thepresence of marital discord

(Belsky, 1984; Erel & Burman, 1995). For example, studies have reported

that marital quality is associated with a fathers perceived sense of compe-

tence in his parenting abilities and a mothers positive attitude toward

parenting (Bogenschneider, Small, & Tsay, 1997; Crnic & Acevedo, 1995;

Deater-Deckard & Scarr, 1996; McBride, 1989; Parke, 1995; Stoneman,

Brody, & Burke, 1989).

If there is little research regarding abusive mens perceptions of theirparenting, there has been even less research examining the parenting experi-

ences of Latinos. Most of the research on parenting in the United States has

been conducted with White and African American men (see exceptions by

Bronstein, 1984; Dumka, Gonzales, Wood, & Formoso, 1998; Mirand,

1997; Powell, 1995). Powell (1995) points out that one barrier to developing

relevant parenting programs for Latino fathers is the lack of information

about them. Furthermore, there have been no published studies on the

parenting experiences of Latino male batterers.

A possible reason could be the image that Latino fathers do not play an

active role in the care of their children. Traditional views regarding the pri-

mary roles of women as caregivers to children and of men as breadwinners

andprovidersfor their familymay havesomethingto do with this perception.

Ethnographic studies by Lewis (1960) and Madsen (1973) found that, inMexican families, fathers tended to avoid intimacy andwere not affectionate

with their children as a means to elicit their respect (cited in Mirand, 1988).

Two studies have contradicted these findings. Rubel (1966) found that men

were warm andaffectionate in relating to young children.Bronsteins (1984)

study with Mexican mothers and fathers indicated that fathers were more

playful and companionable with their children than were mothers. Recently,

Mirand (1997) interviewed Latino men about their roles as fathers and

found that many placed an emphasis on both nurturing and providing finan-

cially for their children. Mirand also reported that Latino men born outside

theUnitedStatesand those interviewed in Spanish were more likely to stress

being good providers rather than being loving and affectionate to their

children.

Regarding mothers, there is some evidence that Latinas do internalize theexpectation to nurture, care for, and maintain the family connections

(Vasquez, 1994). However,more recent work has begun to contradict stereo-

Baker et al. / PARENTING AMONG LATINOS 1141


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types of Latina mothers (Street Chilman, 1993; Williams, 1990). Womens

roles in the family appear to be changing (especially among younger

Latinas), as they are forced to work outside the home to sustain the house-

hold. Therefore, although mothers may still be responsible for homemaking

and child rearing, the rigid differentiationof sex role tasks may be relaxed as

both mothers and fathers begin to share these responsibilities (Mirand,

1988; Street Chilman, 1993).

Inourwork with Latinobatterers (manyof whom areof Mexican descent)

for the past 6 years, we have observed that the traditional strong and rigid

gender roles are present in some form among many (but certainly not all),

especially those from rural places in Latin America. As a resultof thechang-

ing roles in many Latino families, however, it appears that men, especially

younger ones, areactivelyattempting to learn theskillsnecessary to becomeincreasingly involved in their childrens caregiving. Thepresenceof violence

within the home, however, may be having a substantial impact on this

endeavor. The need for additional empirical data regarding this issue is quite

clear.

To this effect, the present study examined the relation between domestic

violence and parenting stress and perceived competence in Latino couples.

Because we were interested in enhancing our understanding of distinct

parentingdynamics withincouples, we compared menandwomens percep-

tions of parenting stress and competence. All couples participating in this

study were living together. As a result, each couple provided the context in

which abuse was occurring.

Predictors of parenting stress and competence were explored separately

for men and women. Also, mothers and fathers were compared on theirreports of parenting stress and competence. The hypotheses for this study

were the following:

Hypothesis 1:Mens perpetration of psychological and physical abuse againsttheir partners is positively associated withtheirparentingstress and negativelyassociated with their parenting competence.

Hypothesis 2:Womens experiences of psychological and physical abuse is posi-tively associated with their parenting stress and negatively associated withtheir parenting competence.

Hypothesis3: Menreportless parentingstress and lessparenting competence thanwomen.

Thedirection of thehypotheses wasguided by thepresent studys theoret-

ical perspective, in which domestic violence is seen as a fundamental viola-tion of humanrights. Inourstudy, we conceptualized theindividualinstances

of violence that a man perpetrates against his partner as a result of a decision



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hehas made. Thus, wedonot believe that there isany valid reasonwhy a man

would use violence against a woman because of stress he may feel or behav-

iors on her part. Therefore, hypotheses suggesting that high levels of

parenting stress and low levels of parenting competence are precursors to

violence would not be justified. Also consistent with our theoretical perspec-

tive, only male violence against women was examined. Although studies

have suggested that women are as likely to batter as are men, these studies

have also been challenged fornotcontextualizing their results (e.g., although

women do physically assault men, often it is in self-defense). Therefore, the

present study wasgenderspecific:We were interested in exploring parenting

in the context of Latino couples in which male violence against women was

present.

METHOD

Participants

The current study was part of a larger study seeking to evaluate an inter-

vention program for Latino families affectedby domestic violence. Whereas

the larger study analyzed pretests and posttests, this study used data from the

pretest phaseonly. A total of54couples were askedtoparticipate in thestudy.

Inseven cases,data were collectedfrom only oneof thepartners, andso these

cases were dropped from the analyses. Also, four of the couples did not have

children and, therefore, were not included in the study. The final response

rate was 80%.The participants were 43 immigrant Latino couples living in a southeast-

ernmetropolitanarea. Two groups of couples were recruited. The first group

(n= 26) consisted of couples in which the men had been court-ordered to

attend a batterers intervention program due to their violent behavior against

their partners. Abused women and their children participated in the program

on a volunteer basis. Services offered to men and women in the intervention

group were considered remunerationin kind. Thecomparison group (n = 17)

consisted of volunteer couples recruited from programs and services offered

by a Catholic mission in a Latino section of the city. Comparison couples

were notperfectly matched oneto one; rather, therewasan attempt tocreatea

comparison group that had similar distributions of age, education, and coun-

try of origin. Comparison couples were offered $30 for their participation.

Table 1 shows sample characteristics for intervention and comparisongroups separated by gender. There were no differences in country of origin;

most of the participants were born in Mexico (85% of intervention and 74%



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of comparison group). In addition, there were no differences in employment

status. About 94% of men in both intervention and comparison groups were

employed. About 53% of women in the intervention group were employed,

compared to 61% of women in the comparison group.

Measures

Parenting stress and competence. The Parenting Stress Scale, developed

by Berry andJones (1995), is an 18-item measure appropriate forboth moth-

ersand fathers andfor parents of childrenwith andwithout clinical problems.

The scale was recently developed as an alternative to the Parenting Stress

Index (PSI) (Abidin, 1986). To test the scales validity, Berry and Jones

(1995) compared it to the Perceived StressScale (PSS) (Cohen, Kamarck, &

Mermelstein, 1983) and the PSI. The Parenting Stress Scale correlated with

thePSS(r= .41,p < .01) and withthe PSI total (r=.75,p < .01).Furthermore,

it significantly differentiated between mothers of children receiving treat-

ment for behavioral problems and mothers of children who were not in treat-

ment. In thisstudy, one item was dropped from the scale because it had a neg-

ative item-to-total correlation even after the item hadbeen recoded. The item

was, I would do anything for my children. The remaining 17 items pro-duced an alpha coefficient of .72.


TABLE 1: Sample Characteristics for Mens and Womens Intervention and Compar-ison Groups

Intervention Group Comparison Group

n M SD n M SD t

Men 26 17

Age 29.76 4.29 32.88 7.47 1.72

Years in United States 9.42 4.79 8.74 5.74 0.43

Number of children 2.38 1.24 2.71 2.49 0.56

Years in relationship 6.31 3.88 7.21 5.09 0.66

Years in school 8.00 4.02 8.12 3.82 0.09

Women 26 17

Age 25.88 4.41 29.88 6.88 2.33*

Years in United States 5.65 3.93 7.24 7.10 0.95

Number of children 2.38 1.30 2.71 2.49 0.55

Years in relationship 5.50 3.10 7.20 5.36 1.32

Years in school 8.31 3.26 10.06 4.56 1.47

*p< .05.


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The Parent Performance subscale of the Cleminshaw-Guidubaldi Parent

Satisfaction Scale was used as a measure of parenting competence

(Guidubaldi & Cleminshaw,1985). Guidubaldiand Cleminshaw established

construct validity by comparing the Parent Satisfaction Scale with other sat-

isfaction measurements (e.g.,marital life). Results showedconsistentsignifi-

cant relationships between the Parent Satisfaction Scale and the Dyadic

Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976) and the Life Satisfaction Index

(Neugarten, Havighurst, & Tobin, 1961). Thealpha coefficient for this study

was .72. No validity studies of the Parenting Stress Scale and the Parent Per-

formance subscale have been conducted with Latino populations. Both

instruments used a 4-point Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 =

strongly agreeto 4 =strongly disagree.

No Spanish language versions of theParenting StressScale andthe ParentPerformance subscale were available, so translations were made. The scales

were translated by a bilingual researcher of Colombian origin and then

checked by people from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. Back

translations were completedby a bilingualnative English speaker unfamiliar

with the original scales, using the criteria suggested by Brislin, Lonner, and

Thorndike (1973). After the scales were translated, members of the research

team (all were Latinos) examined the scales and found them to be relevant to

their experiences as parents. In addition, we conducted pilot tests with five

Latino couples. They reported that the questions were understandable and

held meaning for them, thus supporting that the scales had face validity for

this sample.

Domestic violence. Physical and psychological violence was measuredusing twostandardized instruments: the Physical Aggression subscale of the

Conflict Tactics Scale-Form N (CTS) (Straus, 1979) and the Psychological

Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI) (Tolman, 1988). Because nei-

ther of the individual instruments had been normed on Latino batterers and

their partners, both were used in this study so as to ascertain their reliability

and appropriateness for this population. Two items were added to the Physi-

calAggression subscale:(a) My partner demands sex whether I want it or not

and (b)My partner threwor smashed or hitor kickedsomething. These items

were added to be consistent with the conceptualization of physical violence

used in the batterers intervention program, including sexual violence and

indirect physical violence.Spanish versionsof theCTSandPMWI were cre-

ated using the same translation procedures outlined above. The measures



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used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 =neverto 5 =frequently. In this

study, the reliability of the two scales was quite high, with alphas of .88 for

the CTS with the two additions and .97 for the PMWI.

Parenting support. Participants were asked about the support they

received as parents with the open-ended question, Whom can you turn to for

support with parenting issues or questions? Responses were later coded into

specific categories.

Procedures

Participants in the intervention group were couples in which the men had

been referred by the court for domestic violence services. Project staff con-ducted an initial intake with the couple to determine the appropriateness of

thereferralto theprogram.At this time, theabused womanwasinvited topar-

ticipate in a womens support and education group and was encouraged to

bring her children to age-appropriate support groups while her partner

attended the batterers program.

After the couples had consented to participate in the batterers program,

project staff described the research component of the program. Couples

understood that participation in the research project was voluntary and in no

way affected services received through the batterers and abused womens

groups. Furthermore,it wasclearlyexplained to themalebattererthathis par-

ticipation in the research would not affect his court status. If the couple

agreed to participate, staff arranged to interview the couple separately prior

to their attending the groups.A member of the research team approached couples for the comparison

group as they waitedto receiveservices (e.g.,medical clinic, English classes,

etc.) at a Catholic mission serving Latinos. Couples were asked if they would

be interested in participating in a research project on family dynamics. If the

coupleagreedto participate, they were interviewedseparately at that time, or

if this was inconvenient, a more suitable time was established for the

interviews.

Consent forms were obtained from all participants. As with all scales and

open-ended questions, consent forms were read to participantsandquestions

were answered before their signatures were obtained. Because of the sensi-

tive nature of the information that was being collected, participant names

were not included on the questionnaires. Each participant was assigned a

study ID number, with participant names, ID numbers, and the data kept inseparate locations.



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RESULTS

Interventionandcomparisons groupswere compared on thepredictorand

dependent variables. Analyses were conducted separately for men and

women. There were no significant differences between the two groups, with

the exception of physical abuse experienced by women (see Table 2). This

difference was to be expected, given how intervention participants were

selected into thestudy. Theabsence of differences on theremainingvariables

mayhavebeen a resultof ourattempt todraw a communitysample of couples

in which the men had not been court mandated, couples who were similar in

age and country of origin to couples from the intervention group. Once the

present study began, we realized that although the comparison couples had

not sought services for domestic violence, both physical and psychologicalabuse was present in several couples. Therefore, subsequent analyses were

conducted with the total group of men and the total group of women.

Comparing Fathers and Mothers

Using thecombinedsamples of menand women,a within-subjectsdesign

was used to examine differences in the mean levels of physical abuse, psy-

chological abuse, parenting stress, and parenting competence between part-

ners. Table 3 shows the means, standard deviations, and pairedtvalues for

men and women. Effect sizes were calculated to show the magnitude of dif-

ference between mens and womens scores. These values can be compared

with a general rule byCohen(1988)suggesting that aneffect size of .20could

be judged as small, .50 as medium, and .80 as large. As expected, men onaverage reported perpetrating less physical and psychological abuse against

their partners than women reported experiencing from their partners. Inaddi-

tion, men reported experiencing less parenting stress than women reported.

There were no gender differences in parenting competence. Regarding

parenting support, only 31% of men compared to 53% of women reported

that they had someone to turn to for parenting issues or questions.

Parenting Stress and Competence

Within Groups of Fathers and Mothers

Theintercorrelations among thepredictoranddependentvariables for the

samples of mothers and fathers are presented in Table 4. These correlations

showsignificantbivariate relationsbetweenmens competence and their per-petration of physical and psychological abuse and between womens

parenting stress and their experiences of physical abuse.



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To further examine theuniquevariance that each predictoraccounts for in

the dependent variables, hierarchical multiple regressions were performed

separately for men and women. The covariates were number of children andmothers employment status and thereforewere entered first in theregression


TABLE 2: Mens and Womens Intervention and Comparison Groups on Predictorand Dependent Variables

Intervention Group Comparison Group

n M SD n M SD t

Men 26 17

Mans physical abuse

(1-5) 1.35 .21 1.14 .22 3.18**

Mans psychological

abuse (1-5) 1.47 .33 1.33 .28 1.40

Parenting stress (1-4) 1.78 .38 1.60 .32 1.61

Parenting competence

(1-4) 2.01 .48 2.29 .65 1.64

Women 26 17

Mans physical abuse

(1-5) 1.88 .98 1.18 .30 2.83**

Mans psychological

abuse (1-5) 1.99 .96 1.51 .50 1.92

Parenting stress (1-4) 1.92 .42 2.00 .49 0.57

Parenting competence

(1-4) 2.29 .53 2.29 .58 0.00

NOTE: Ranges are in parentheses.**p< .01.

TABLE 3: Means, Standard Deviations, andt Scores for Men and Women on Predic-tor and Dependent Variables

Men Women

(n= 43) (n= 43)Effect

Variable M SD M SD Pairedt Size

Mans physical abuse (1-5) 1.27 .24 1.60 .85 2.52* .38

Mans psychological abuse (1-5) 1 .41 .32 1.80 .83 2.91** .45

Parenting stress (1-4) 1.71 .37 1.95 .44 3.11** .48

Parenting competence (1-4) 2.12 .57 2.29 .54 1.74 .26

NOTE: Ranges are in parentheses.*p< .05. **p< .01.


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equations.Studieshave shown thatnumber of childrenandmothersemploy-

ment statusinfluence parentingstress formen andwomen(Lavee, Sharlin, &

Katz, 1996; McBride, 1989). Specifically, parenting stress was expected to

increase when the family had more children living at home and when the

mother was employed outside the home. These covariates were not included

in theparenting competence modelsas there hasbeen no proposed relation in

the literature between thesevariables. Our studysupportedpreviousfindings

(see Table 4). The sample was homogenous in terms of reported income: All

participants were low income. Also, all participants were in committed

relationships.

To examine the differentialeffectsof physical and psychological abuse on

parenting stress and competence, these variables were entered in separate

steps. For men, none of thevariables significantly predictedmens reports of

parenting stress. Regarding parenting competence, psychological abuse sig-nificantly predicted parentingcompetence, such that the more psychological

abusemenperpetrated against their partners, the less competence they felt as

parents. Although physical abuse was also significantly related to parenting

competence when it was entered into the model, in the final step, its effect

became marginally significant according to conventional levels (p= .056).

For women, when physical abuse was entered in Step 2 (after controlling

for number of children and employment), results indicated that it was a sig-

nificant predictorof parentingstress. As in theregression formen, when psy-

chological abuse was entered in the last step, the significance of physical

abusedropped top = .058 andthus approached conventional levels of signifi-

cance. Finally, neither physical nor psychological abuse significantly pre-

dicted womens reports of parenting competence. Tables 5 and 6 summarize

these modelsand present beta weights andsignificance levels foreach step ofthe models.


TABLE 4: Correlation Matrix of Predictor and Dependent Variables

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Number of children . .06 .11 .05 .16 .02

2. Woman employed .14 . .11 .12 .05 .06

3. Physical abuse .11 .17 . .39* .07 .44**

4. Psychological abuse .20 .20 .68** . .24 .52**

5. Parent stress .40** .11 .37* .29 . .41**

6. Parent competence .12 .06 .08 .26 .37* .

NOTE: Correlations for men and women are above and below the diagonal, respectively.*p< .05. **p< .01.


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TABLE 5: Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses of Parenting Stress for Men andWomen

Variable Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Men

Number of children .16 .15 .15

Woman employed .10 .12 .10

Physical abuse .08 .20

Psychological abuse .31

R2

.04 .04 .12

R2

.00 .08

Women

Number of children .44** .40** .41**

Woman employed .14 .20 .20

Physical abuse .36* .37


R2

.20* .33** .33**

R2

.13* .00

NOTE:n= 42 for women andn= 43 for men.p< .06. *p< .05. **p< .01.

TABLE 6: Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses of Parenting Competence forMen and Women

Variable Step 1 Step 2

Men

Physical abuse .44** .28

Psychological abuse .41**

R2

.19** .34**

R2

.15**

Women

Physical abuse .08 .19


R2

.01 .08

R2

.07

NOTE:n= 42 for women andn= 43 for men.p< .06. *p< .05. **p< .01.


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DISCUSSION

The results of this study provide an intriguing glimpse at the issue of

domestic violence and Latino fathers. As stated previously, there appears to

be a gap in our understanding of parenting in the context of domestic vio-

lence. The focus of previous research has been on battered women as moth-

ers, often to the exclusion of male batterers as fathers. In addition, the dearth

of literature regarding Latino parents (especially immigrants) madeour find-

ings especially relevant. It is important to note that given the diversity of the

Latinopopulation, our purpose wasnot to generalize to all Latinos. Rather, it

was to explore these issues with Latino immigrants as a way to begin to

address the lack of research in this area.

Themost salient resultin ourstudywas thedifferential effectsof domesticviolence on menandwomen as it related to parentingstressandcompetence.

Mensreportsof parentingstressweresignificantly lower thantheirpartners

reports. This finding supports the social role hypothesis formulated by

Barnett and Baruch (1987) regarding the relation between social responsibil-

ities inside and outside the home and stress levels. As they propose, if men

and women share responsibilities both inside and outside of the home, they

shouldreport similar stress levels. To theextent that this isnot thecase, stress

levels should be different for men and women. Both men and women in this

sample report thatthe menareprimarilyresponsible forprovidingfinancially

fortheirfamilies,whereas thewomenhavethe primary responsibility forcar-

ing for their children. For women, the emphasis on taking care of the family

may relate to more parenting stress. For men, the emphasis on being a pro-

vider may be associated with other types of stress not related to parentingbecause their contact with their children is limited as a result of extended

working hours andmultiple jobs. In fact, Crnic andAcevedo (1995) reported

that mens levels of parenting stress were more influenced by situations out-

side the home, such as their employment.

The fact that mens perpetration of violence against their partners did not

influence their level of parenting stress contradicts the first hypothesis. One

explanation is that Latino men, like men of other ethnic groups, may be out-

wardly oriented and experience greater levels of parenting stress from situa-

tions outside the home. Thus, it could be that, even in the presence of their

perpetration of physical and psychological abuse against their partners, their

perception of themselves as breadwinners rather thancaregiversof theirchil-

dren could ameliorate their experience of stress as parents. In terms of the

women, physical abuse was a significant predictor of parenting stress.Although the statistical significance did not meet conventional standards,

physicalabuseaccountedfor a significant amountof uniquevariance,with an



14/19

effect sizeR2= .13. This demonstratesthe importanceof considering thereal-

world effect of a variable rather than focusing exclusively on the size ofFs

andstatistical significance(Bakeman,1992;Cohen, 1990;Schmidt,1996). It

was interesting that only physical abuse and not psychological abuse was

related to parenting stress, as would have been expectedper Levendoskyand

Graham-Bermanns (1998) findings. This may be due to our small sample

size, but the issue is an important one with intervention and programmatic

relevance and, as such, merits additional exploration.

In terms of parenting competence, mens reports were not significantly

different from their partners reports. However, the results of this study sug-

gest that mens feelings of parenting competence seem to be tied to their

behaviors toward their partners. Consistent with the studys hypotheses,

reports of mens parenting competence were influenced by the physical andpsychological abuse they perpetrated against their partners. Although in the

final model, physical abuse was not statistically significant at conventional

levels, it did account for 19% of the variance, illustrating the importance of

this variable in predicting mens reports of parenting competence. Whereas

Latino menare raised to be good providersandmay equate financial respon-

sibility with being a good father (Mirand, 1997), it appears that their use of

violence against their partners is negatively related to their perceptions of

parenting competence. Anecdotal reports from members of the batterers

groups indicate that men are quite aware of the effects their abuse against

their partners may have on their children, and this impact concerns them.

These feelings may be influencing their sense of competence as fathers, as

suggested by their expressed desire to participate in parenting classes

(Perilla & Baker, 1997). Many of the study participants did indeed availthemselves of parentingclasses held in thecommunity. These actions maybe

related to the finding that almost 70% of men report having no one to turn to

for parenting questions or concerns.

As for women, their beliefs about being competent parents were not sig-

nificantly influenced by their partners abuse. These results seem consistent

with the value that Latinas hold toward being good mothers. From an early

age, girls are expected to become mothers, and a great deal of a womans

identity, especiallyamong Latinas fromtraditional communities, is related to

this role as adults. Although this may be changing, especially for younger

Latinas, there is still evidence to suggest that thecaretaking of children ispri-

mary for Latinas lives and, therefore, they learn to discharge this responsi-

bility in a competent manner. In the presence of domestic violence, women

may feel overwhelmed by the abuse, but their sense of self-efficacy as moth-ers is not easily shaken. This finding is also consistent with Levendosky

et al.s (2000) research, suggesting that, for some women, violence in the



15/19

relationship may increase their sense of competence as they focus attention

on protecting their children.

This study found support for thedistinctive roles of mothers andfathers in

this population. It appears that themans role as provider for ratherthan care-

giver to his children may be related to his reported low levels of parenting

stress, even among men reporting abuse toward their partners. Conversely,

the strong emphasis on the womans role as mother may help women to per-

ceive themselves as competent parents even in the face of the abuse in their

lives.

Whereas these data provide an important link to understanding Latino

couples experiences of parenting stress and competence, there are limita-

tions to the study. Sample size, for example, could have influenced the

results. Another limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the design.Although it may be appropriate on theoretical grounds to make directional

statements about violenceandstress, wemust beclear that,without a longitu-

dinal design, it is not possible to distinguish the order of these effects

empirically.

Also, regarding instruments used, we found that when assessing the cul-

tural relevance of theparentingstressandcompetence measures, some ques-

tions produced more variability than others. Specifically, in the Parenting

Stress Scale, variability on two items was small due to extreme positive

answers.TheitemswereI woulddoanythingfor mychildrenif itwasneces-

sary and My children are an important source of affection for me. The

Latino cultural value of familism may be at work here. By definition,

familism is the strong identification and attachment of individuals within

their families, such that familymembers will do anything foreach other (i.e.,providing material or emotional support to nuclear and extended family

members) (Sabogal, Marn, Otero-Sabogal, VanOss Marn, & Perez-Stable,

1987).A question about a parents willingness to doanythingfor hisor her

child may have seemed obvious and thus may have been answered in the

extreme positive direction. Regardless of the above, the scales had adequate

reliability (alpha levels of .72 forboth)as well as face validity, as statedin the

method section. We believe that one of the studys contributions is the Span-

ishversion of two instruments that seem to be appropriate foruse with Latino

populations.

Despite its limitations, the study undoubtedly provides an important first

step in understanding the parenting experiences of couples in relationships

where domestic violence is present. Its first strength is the unique nature of

the population being studied. The second is the manner in which it was stud-ied. As mentioned previously, studies regarding Latino fathers are quite lim-

ited (Mirand, 1997; Powell, 1995); research on Latino batterers and



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Charlene K. Baker is a doctoral candidate in community psychology at Georgia State

University. Her research interests are domestic violence, homelessness, and develop-

ment of systems-level responses to ending violence against women.



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Julia L. Perilla is a clinical community psychologist and assistant research professor in

the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. Her areas of interest are

domestic violence, diversity issues, Latino families, and trauma. As coordinator of the

Caminar Latino Program at Mercy Mobile Health Care (a community agency serving

homeless,refugee, andimmigrant populations) since1990, shehas hadextensiveexperi-

ence working with Latino families affected by domestic violence.

FranH. Norris is a professor of community psychology at Georgia State University. She

is interested in the psychosocial consequences of disasters, violence, and other types of

traumatic events.


parenting stress

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