Double disadvantage: Health impacts of parenting a child with a disability for parents with prior exposure to childhood maltreatment

Abstract

Background: Parenting a child with a disability has been shown to take a toll on physical health in mid to late life. However, the additional impact of a history of childhood maltreatment has not been explored.

Objective: This study examined the moderating effect of exposure to childhood maltreatment on the longitudinal associations between parenting a child with a disability and physical health. We also examined whether this interaction was conditional on parent gender.

Methods: Data were obtained from 3178 participants in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. We used linear mixed modeling to estimate the independent and interactive effects of a history of childhood maltreatment, parenting a child with a disability, and parent gender on physical health over three waves of assessment spanning nearly two decades. We used three distinct measures of health including a composite based on two self-rated health items, chronic conditions, and functional limitations.

Results: Key results showed that a history of childhood maltreatment exacerbated the adverse health effect of parenting a child with a disability for mothers, but not fathers.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that a history of early maltreatment may create a context that makes it more difficult to cope with the demands of caring for a child with a disability, and the accompanying stress has a detrimental effect on health.

Keywords: Child abuse and neglect; Lifespan perspective; Longitudinal analysis; Nonnormative parenting.