Intimate Partner Violence and Depression of Mothers and Their Adolescent Children: The Roles of Housing Insecurity and System Contacts

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization is a prominent risk factor for depression among mothers. Less is known about the long-term relationship between IPV and maternal depression, impacts of IPV exposure on children, and mechanisms linking IPV with long-term mental health problems. IPV threatens stable housing for survivors, which increases likelihood of surveillance and sanctioning by formal systems – in particular, child welfare and criminal justice. The present study investigates whether housing insecurity and system contacts mediate the relationship between maternal IPV victimization and depression among both mothers and children 10 years later. Data comes from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a longitudinal survey of at-risk families with children. Structural equation modeling investigates pathways from IPV victimization of mothers to maternal and child depression via housing insecurity and contact with the child welfare and criminal justice systems. Results show IPV victimization is directly associated with housing insecurity, child welfare contact, and adolescent depression. Further, housing insecurity leading to both types of system contact mediates the link from IPV to maternal depression; in contrast, housing insecurity alone mediates the link from IPV to depression among children when they are 15 years old. Findings suggest IPV toward mothers has enduring, multigenerational effects on mental health that unfold over a long period following victimization. Complex pathways suggest housing insecurity and contact with punitive social systems that disproportionately impact low-income families explain in part the link from IPV to depression. Lack of housing options may deter survivors from leaving violent relationships, and housing insecurity in the wake of victimization may contribute to interactions with punitive social systems. Efforts to address housing, stigma, and psychological needs of IPV survivors are crucial to stabilize families.

Keywords

child abuse domestic violence intergenerational transmission of trauma mental health and violence

Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide that disproportionately impacts low-income, marginalized populations (Patel et al., 2018; World Health Organization, 2020). Intimate partner violence (IPV) has long been associated with increased depression risk for survivors; furthermore, early childhood experiences of witnessing IPV may be linked to depression later in life (Kennedy et al., 2010). However, pathways from IPV to depression risk have yet to be elucidated. Survivors of IPV commonly experience housing insecurity, and prior research links housing insecurity with depression via contacts with punitive social systems (Marçal & Maguire-Jack, 2021). IPV may create high levels of need for survivors that may destabilize their living arrangements, leading to increased surveillance and sanctioning by social systems. The present study investigates whether housing insecurity and system contacts mediate the link from IPV to depression among mothers and their adolescent children.

Literature Review

Intimate Partner Violence and Depression

IPV victimization has severe consequence for maternal mental health. Across 20 studies in a meta-analysis of research dating back to the 1980s, depression occurred in approximately half of women who had experienced IPV (Golding, 1999). More recent research converges with this finding, but most studies focus on relatively short follow-up periods. In a cross-sectional study of non-offending mothers of adolescent children seeking services for sexual abuse, maternal IPV victimization was associated with increased psychological distress measured by the 53-item Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI), which assesses depression, anxiety, and somatization (Jouriles et al., 2021). Also using the BSI, a study that sampled women seeking IPV services found that severity of violence was associated with greater concurrent mental health symptoms (Maddoux et al., 2016). Similarly, a large telephone survey of adult women (N = 3429) found IPV victimization predicted depression (Bonomi, 2006), although recent IPV (past 5 years) had a stronger effect than more distal IPV. Taken together, this body of research suggests that IPV victimization among mothers relates with risk for depression at least in the short-term; the nature and scope of a longer-term association have yet to be elucidated.

A large body of research further links exposure to mothers’ IPV victimization with adverse mental health outcomes among children (e.g., Hawkins et al., 2019). IPV exposure has been linked to greater behavior problems among children ranging from toddlerhood to adolescence (Easterbrooks, 2018; Maddoux et al., 2016). A meta-analysis found significantly worse internalizing problems among children exposed to IPV compared to those without IPV exposure (Kitzmann et al., 2003); highest effects were seen among preschool children. More recently, a longitudinal study using a large sample of adolescents and young adults found exposure to parental IPV most strongly related with depression at age 15, though this effect tapered off as youth entered early adulthood (Menon et al., 2018). Mothers’ victimization has significant adverse consequences for the mental health of both mothers and children.

Intimate Partner Violence, Housing Insecurity, and Depression

Lack of stable housing may be an important factor in the pathway from IPV to depression (Marçal, 2021). Intimate partner violence is a leading cause of housing insecurity and homelessness, and experiences of IPV put parents at four times greater risk for late rent payments or frequent moves (Pavao et al., 2007). In a nationally representative study, experiencing IPV was associated with housing insecurity 12 months later for both men and women (Breiding et al., 2017). Abusive partners may control household finances or interfere with survivors’ employment (MacGregor et al., 2019, 2020), which contributes to survivors’ ability to maintain safe, stable living arrangements (Adams et al., 2012, 2021).

Housing insecurity also contributes to depression among IPV survivors and their children. In a recent study of mothers who had experienced IPV (N = 218), those who reported moving frequently had more symptoms of depression than stably housed participants (Adams et al., 2021). Recent research found that exposure to housing insecurity in early childhood related with depressive symptoms for children and their parents 10 years later (Hatem et al., 2020). Lack of stable housing exposes families to chaotic, unstable conditions that increase stress and drive risk for mental disorder (Evans, 2006; Evans & Kim, 2012).

Role of Systems Contact

Interaction with punitive social systems disproportionately impact marginalized families with high needs. Rates of child welfare and criminal justice involvement are significantly higher among low-income families compared to middle- or high-income families (Jonson-Reid et al., 2009; Lofstrom & Raphael, 2016). Research confirms that prior adversity including IPV and housing insecurity is associated with systems contact (child welfare and criminal justice) among low-income families (Marçal & Maguire-Jack, 2021). Witnessing partner abuse is associated with child maltreatment (Hamby et al., 2010), and IPV is common among child welfare-involved families (Fusco, 2015; Westad & McConnell, 2012). Women experiencing IPV likewise face elevated risk for criminal justice contact due to increased likelihood of calling authorities, being involved in domestic disputes, and mandatory arrest laws (Novisky & Peralta, 2015).

It is difficult to disentangle reasons for increased system involvement, but marginalized families with existing vulnerabilities face heightened risk. Low-income families and families of color are overrepresented in both the child welfare (Cénat et al., 2021; Drake et al., 2009; Hines et al., 2004) and criminal justice systems (Wildeman & Wakefield, 2014), pointing to important questions about need, bias, and visibility (Jonson-Reid et al., 2009; Kim & Drake, 2018). Housing insecurity may impede caregiver ability to meet children’s basic needs, increasing risk for child welfare reporting and investigation. When families struggle to maintain safe, stable, affordable living arrangements, children may be exposed to dangerous environments. Similarly, housing insecurity has been associated with criminal justice involvement (Gottlieb & Moose, 2018; Marçal & Maguire-Jack, 2021); delayed rent payments, eviction filings, and frequent moves may bring families into contact with law enforcement. Lack of stable housing strains household finances and increases needs, making it more likely that families will encounter heightened surveillance and sanctions (Boggess, 2017; Brayne, 2014; Fletcher & Wright, 2018).

Involvement with punitive social systems can lead to lasting mental health problems for both caregivers and children, and thus may be an important factor linking IPV and housing insecurity with depression. Child welfare and criminal justice involvement may drive feelings of stress, frustration, and helplessness that contribute to depression among mothers. Depression is highly prevalent among child welfare-involved caregivers (Chuang et al., 2014). In a large sample of Canadian mothers (N = 3182), those with children placed in foster care displayed more signs of mental disorders compared to mothers whose children were not removed (Wall-Wieler et al., 2017). A review of 32 articles likewise found that children placed in foster care displayed consistently higher rates of depression compared to national averages (Oswald et al., 2009). A recent study found more than one in four child welfare-involved youth displayed withdrawn-depressed or anxious-depressed symptoms, and more than one in three had engaged in recent self-harm (Santens et al., 2018).

Likewise, parental criminal justice involvement has been linked with increased risk for depression among both parents (Mbaba et al., 2018) and children (Murray et al., 2012). A study of at-risk families in large U.S. cities (N = 3107) found recent incarceration was associated with substantially increased risk for major depressive disorder (Turney et al., 2012). In a nationally representative sample of Black adolescents (N = 3594), depressive symptoms were significantly more likely among adolescents who had both parents incarcerated compared to those without parents incarcerated or fathers-only incarcerated (Kopak & Smith-Ruiz, 2016). Findings suggest multigenerational psychological effects of contacts with punitive, surveilling social systems.

Present Study

The present study investigated pathways from mothers’ IPV victimization to maternal and adolescent depression via housing insecurity and system contacts. Specifically, we test the following research questions: (1) Is mothers’ IPV victimization associated with maternal and/or adolescent depression 10 years later? (2) Do housing insecurity and system contacts mediate links from IPV to maternal and adolescent depression? We hypothesize that IPV is associated with increased housing insecurity, which is associated with increased criminal justice and child welfare contacts, both of which subsequently relate with maternal and adolescent depression. The pathways from IPV to depression among mothers and their children have yet to be fully elucidated. It is unknown whether housing insecurity and system contacts mediate the link from IPV to maternal or adolescent depression, or how this pathway unfolds across the transition from early childhood to adolescence. Findings will illuminate complex longitudinal pathways from IPV victimization to mental disorder and inform prevention and intervention efforts.

Methods

Data

Data came from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a large longitudinal survey of families with children born 1998–2000. All U.S. cities with populations over 200,000 were stratified by political and economic climate; cities were randomly selected within strata, hospitals randomly selected within cities, and births selected within hospitals with an intentional oversample of those to unmarried parents (Reichman et al., 2001). Thus, the sample was disproportionately comprised of urban, low-income, minority families. Mothers were recruited and interviewed in hospitals shortly after giving birth; follow-ups occurred at 1-, 3-, 5-, 9-, and 15-year intervals. The analytic sample for the present study was limited to families in which the mother retained at least partial custody of children at the Years 5 and 9 interviews (N = 2892). Over half of mothers were Black while 22% were white, 23% were Hispanic, and the remaining 3% were some other race (Table 1). The majority of mothers had not received beyond a high school education, and the average household income was $38,162—well below the national median family income for 2005 of $58,000 (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2005). Fewer than half of mothers were married to or cohabitating with a partner.

Table 1.

Sample Description.

	M (SD)	N (%)	% Imputed
Mother’s age at Child’s birth	25.22 (6.04)		0.00
Mother’s race/Ethnicity			0.00
Black		1196 (52.20%)
White		498 (21.74%)
Hispanic		525 (22.92%)
Other race		72 (3.14%)
Mother’s highest level of education completed			0.00
Less than high school diploma		693 (30.25%)
High school diploma/GED		719 (31.38%)
Some college		535 (23.35%)
College degree or higher		344 (15.01%)
Parents married or cohabitating		1019 (44.48%)	0.00
Household income	$38,162 ($45,905)		0.00
Child gender		0.00
Male		1176 (51.33%)
Female		1115 (48.67%)
Physical aggression in parenting	0.75 (0.87)		17.11
Psychological aggression in parenting	1.45 (1.05)		8.95
Problem substance use		68 (2.97%)	5.72
Family history of depression		1139 (49.72%)	27.19
Intimate partner violence^a
To what extent does your partner:
Insult or criticize you or your ideas	0.50 (0.66)		16.32
Try to keep you from seeing or talking to friends or family	0.22 (0.53)		16.32
Try to prevent you from going to work or school	0.10 (0.38)		16.32
Withhold money, make you ask for money, or take your money	0.15 (0.46)		16.46
Slap or kick you	0.05 (0.26)		16.41
Hit you with a fist or an object that could hurt you	0.04 (0.24)		16.37
Try to make you have sex or do sexual things you don’t want to do	0.05 (0.26)		16.37
Withhold sex to try to control your behavior	0.04 (0.23)		16.46
Insult/criticize you for not taking good enough care of your child or home	0.14 (0.42)		16.32
Throw something at you	0.06 (0.27)		16.41
Push, grab, or shove you	0.09 (0.33)		16.37
Housing insecurity
In the past year, have you:
Skipped rent/mortgage payment due to inability to pay		319 (13.92%)	0.00
Skipped utility payment due to inability to pay		599 (26.15%)	0.00
Evicted from home or apartment for nonpayment		36 (1.57%)	0.00
Moved in with others because of financial problems		164 (7.16%)	0.00
Stayed in shelter, on streets, or in a vehicle		42 (1.83%)	0.00
System contacts
Child welfare		158 (6.90%)	11.17
Criminal justice		253 (11.04%)	5.33
Maternal depression		429 (18.73%)	0.00
Adolescent depression^b
In the past 4 weeks, to what extent do you agree:
I feel I cannot shake off the blues	2.89 (1.04)		0.00
I feel sad	1.43 (0.80)		0.00
I feel life is not worth living	1.64 (0.97)		0.00
I feel depressed	2.31 (1.10)		0.00

^a0-2 scale;

^b1-4 scale.

Measures

Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) captured the extent to which mothers were victimized physically, sexually, verbally, or emotionally by their current or former romantic partner at the Year 5 interview, when study focal children were approximately 5 years old. If mothers had previously been but were no longer in a romantic relationship, they reported on experiences of victimization in the last month of the relationship. This latent variable was indicated by 11 observed ordinal items. Mothers self-reported how frequently their current partners had engaged in various abusive behaviors on a three-point Likert-type scale (0 = “Never,” 1 = “Sometimes,” 2 = “Often”). Mothers who reported not having a romantic partner during the study period were coded as “Never” for all IPV items.

Housing Insecurity

Housing insecurity captured families’ experiences of unaffordable, unstable, or lack of housing in the past year. Measured as a latent variable, housing insecurity was indicated by five observed dichotomous items. Mothers self-reported whether they had skipped a rent or mortgage payment, skipped a utility payment, been evicted, doubled up with others for financial reasons, or experienced at least one night homeless.

System Contacts

Two variables assessed whether mothers had contact with the criminal justice and child welfare systems—two social systems with high rates of involvement in the lives of low-income, racial minority Americans. Both variables were dichotomous observed variables self-reported by mothers at the Year 9 interview. Criminal justice contact indicated whether mothers had been stopped by the police, had been booked or charged with breaking the law, or had charges pending since the last (Year 5) interview. Child welfare contact indicated whether mothers had been investigated by or had children removed from the home by Child Protective Services since the last (Year 5) interview.

Maternal Depression

Maternal depression captured whether mothers met criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) at the Year 15 interview. DSM-IV was used throughout Fragile Families for consistency, given the study began in 1998. Maternal depression was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form (CIDI-SF; Kessler et al., 1998). Mothers were considered to meet diagnostic criteria for MDD if they endorsed symptoms of either dysphoric mood or anhedonia for at least half the day almost every day for 2 weeks in the past year, or reported that they were taking medication for depression (Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, 2020; Walters et al., 2002).

Adolescent Depression

Adolescent depression assessed the extent to which youth had experienced symptoms of depression in the past 4 weeks. The latent construct was indicated by four ordinal observed variables collected at the Year 15 interview. Items were drawn from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Youth self-reported the extent to which they agreed with four statements such as “I feel I cannot shake off the blues, even with help from my family and my friends” and “I feel life is not worth living” on a four-point Likert-type scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” Because the full scale was not included and thus a cutoff for clinical-level depression could not be determined, items were treated as indicators for the continuous latent construct.

Covariates

Several covariates were included in analyses according to theory and prior empirical research. Mothers self-reported their age at the time of the focal child’s birth, their race/ethnicity (Black, White, Hispanic, or Other), and their highest level of education completed by the Year 5 interview (Less than a high school degree, High school diploma/GED, Some college, College degree or higher). Further at Year 5, mothers reported whether they were cohabitating with and/or married to the child’s biological father (0 = No, 1 = Yes), and their household income in dollars. Child gender was captured as 0 = Female, 1 = Male.

Physical and psychological aggression in parenting was measured using the Psychological Aggression and Physical Assault subscales of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC). Mothers reported the frequency with which they engaged in various acts toward children such as shouting at, insulting, threatening, spanking, hitting with an object in the past month. Five physical and five psychological aggression items scored on a six-point scale from “Never” to “More than 20 times” were averaged to generate the two scores, where higher scores indicated higher levels of aggression in parenting. Substance use indicated whether mothers had displayed problematic alcohol or drug use; mothers reported the frequency with which they used substances such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin and whether their use interfered with their work, school, or home lives.

Analytic Approach

Structural equation modeling with latent variables addressed research questions. First, a measurement model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) estimated indicators for the three latent constructs IPV, housing insecurity, and adolescent depression. Categorical indicators for each latent construct were selected with theoretical and empirical justification; the measurement model was fit by correlating error terms iteratively based on modification index values greater than 20 when merited by theory.

Based on results of the final CFA, composite reliability was calculated to assess internal consistency of latent constructs. Calculated according to equation (1), composite reliability assessed the appropriateness and fit of observed items as indicators for each latent construct (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Kline, 2016). Composite reliability values greater than 0.70 are considered to have strong internal consistency (Hair, 2013; Henseler & Sarstedt, 2013).

\frac{{(\sum_{i = 1}^{p} λ_{i})}^{2}}{{(\sum_{i = 1}^{p} λ_{i})}^{2} + \sum_{i}^{p} ν (δ)}

(1)

where:

λ_{i}

= coefficient for each indicator variable

ν (δ)

= error variance for each indicator variable

A structural model then estimated pathways from IPV to maternal depression and adolescent depression via housing insecurity and system contacts. The weighted least square mean and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimator fit direct and indirect pathways with bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals (Li, 2016; Muthen & Muthen, 2018; Suh, 2015). Covariates were included for pathways with theoretical and empirical justification. The exogenous variable IPV controlled for mother’s race, highest level of education, age, household income, and marital status at Year 5. Fit for both the measurement and structural models were assessed using Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) values based on recommended cutoffs (RMSEA < 0.05, CFI > 0.95, SRMR < 0.08; Kline, 2016; Schreiber et al., 2006).

Missing Data

Missing data were handled using multiple imputation by chained equations with predictive mean matching (MICE). MICE offers a robust and reliable approach for addressing missing data in complex survey designs with large proportions of missing values (Lee & Huber, 2011). By treating each missing value as a dependent variable predicted by all other variables in the dataset, this approach leveraged maximum available information to estimate unbiased imputed values for the present study (Azur et al., 2011; Morris et al., 2014). Data management, imputation, and descriptive analyses were conducted in R Version 4.0.3, and structural equation modeling was conducted in MPlus Version 8.6.

Results

The measurement model showed strong fit to the data (RMSEA = 0.02; CFI = 0.99; SRMR = 0.05; Table 2). Factor loadings all exceeded 0.04 and were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Composite reliability values ranged from 0.82 (housing insecurity) to 0.96 (IPV), suggesting observed items were valid indicators of latent constructs.

Table 2.

Results of CFA.

Latent Variable	Observed Items	β	95% CI	Composite Reliability
Intimate partner violence	Insults or criticizes you or your ideas	0.750***	0.714, 0.788	0.959
	Tries to keep you from seeing or talking to friends or family	0.769***	0.730, 0.808
	Tries to prevent you from going to work or school	0.783***	0.732, 0.829
	Withholds money or takes your money	0.807***	0.767, 0.842
	Slaps or kicks you	0.943***	0.918, 0.966
	Hits you with a fist or an object that could hurt you	0.900***	0.865, 0.934
	Tries to make you have sex/do sexual things you don’t want to	0.817***	0.763, 0.864
	Withholds sex to try to control your behavior	0.687***	0.605, 0.752
	Insults or criticizes you for not taking good enough care of child/home	0.735***	0.685, 0.780
	Throws something at you	0.910***	0.877, 0.936
	Pushes, grabs, or shoves you	0.951***	0.930, 0.969
Housing insecurity	Skipped rent/mortgage payment due to inability to pay	0.624***	0.529, 0.723	0.815
	Skipped utility payment due to inability to pay	0.883***	0.732, 1.000
	Evicted from home or apartment for not paying rent/mortgage	0.455***	0.364, 0.556
	Moved in with others because of financial problems	0.717***	0.625, 0.803
	Stayed in shelter, on streets, or in a vehicle	0.711***	0.533, 0.838
Adolescent depression	I feel I cannot shake off the blues	0.545***	0.506, 0.585	0.842
	I feel sad	0.861***	0.831, 0.891
	I feel life is not worth living	0.732***	0.694, 0.770
	I feel depressed	0.860***	0.831, 0.890
Model fit	RMSEA (95% CI)	CFI	SRMR	χ² (p-value)
	0.021 (0.018–0.024)	0.993	0.051	366.725 (0.000)

Note. Table reports standardized coefficient estimates; ***p < 0.001.

Likewise, the structural model showed strong fit to the data (RMSEA = 0.02; CFI = 0.98; SRMR = 0.07). The model tested 13 direct (Figure 1) and 10 indirect (Table 3) pathways. IPV was directly associated with housing insecurity at Year 5 (β = 0.18, p < 0.001), child welfare contact at Year 9 (β = 0.22, p < 0.001), and adolescent depression at Year 15 (β = 0.10, p < 0.01). Housing insecurity was directly associated with both criminal justice (β = 0.30, p < 0.001) and child welfare (β = 0.28, p < 0.001) contacts at Year 9 as well as adolescent depression at Year 15 (β = 0.13, p < 0.05). Criminal justice and child welfare contacts at Year 9 were both directly associated with maternal depression (β = 0.10, p < 0.05 and β = 0.22, p < 0.01, respectively).

Figure 1.

Structural model linking IPV with maternal and adolescent depression. Note. Solid black lines indicated significant pathways. Dashed gray lines indicate insignificant pathways. Diagram reports standardized estimates.

Table 3.

Results of Structural Model.

		β			95% CI
IPV → housing insecurity → CW contact → adolescent depression		0.001			−0.005, 0.006
IPV → housing insecurity → CW contact → maternal depression		0.011*			0.003, 0.022
IPV → housing insecurity → CJ contact → adolescent depression		0.001			−0.003, 0.007
IPV → housing insecurity → CJ contact → maternal depression		0.005*			0.000, 0.012
IPV → CW contact → adolescent depression		0.003			−0.019, 0.024
IPV → CW contact → maternal depression		0.047*			0.015, 0.087
IPV → CJ contact → adolescent depression		0.001			−0.005, 0.007
IPV → CJ contact → maternal depression		0.002			−0.008, 0.014
IPV → housing insecurity → adolescent depression		0.022*			0.005, 0.043
IPV → housing insecurity → maternal depression		0.021			−0.004, 0.048
Model fit:	RMSEA (95% CI)		CFI	SRMR	χ² (p-value)
	0.021 (0.020, 0.023)		0.979	0.068	1186.090 (0.000)

Note. Table reports standardized estimates and 95% bootstrapped confidence intervals; *p < 0.05; Bold indicates statistical significance.

Results of the structural model also showed significant indirect pathways from IPV to both depression outcomes (Table 3). In the first significant pathway, IPV was associated with increased housing insecurity, which subsequently related with increased risk for child welfare contact; finally, child welfare contact was associated with increased maternal depression. The second significant pathway functioned similarly but through criminal justice rather than child welfare contact. In the third pathway, IPV related directly with increased child welfare contact which related with increased maternal depression. Finally, the fourth pathway linked IPV with increased housing insecurity, which related directly with increased adolescent depression.

Discussion

The current study examined whether maternal IPV victimization was associated with maternal and adolescent depression, and whether these pathways were mediated by housing insecurity and system contacts. Results showed IPV was directly associated with subsequent housing insecurity, child welfare contact, and mental health as well as indirectly related with both maternal and adolescent depression via housing insecurity and system contacts.

Findings support prior research suggesting a direct relationship between maternal IPV victimization and increased likelihood of housing insecurity (Adams et al., 2021; Gilroy et al., 2016; Pavao et al., 2007). IPV might be related to housing insecurity for a multitude of reasons. A survivor may need to unexpectedly flee an unsafe situation and temporarily enter a shelter or double up with friends or family (Gavin, 2015; Sugg, 2015). An abusive partner may control the financial resources including the survivor’s personal income, which could then put the survivor in an insecure housing situation (MacGregor et al., 2019, 2020). The direct pathway from IPV to child welfare system contact may be driven by concerns about child safety when violence occurs in the household; families experiencing ongoing violence may be more likely to be reported to Child Protective Services, even when the violence is directed at the mother.

The present study also supports prior research suggesting direct links from housing insecurity to both forms of system contacts (Marçal & Maguire-Jack, 2021). Lack of stable housing creates a number of needs for families that may bring them into contact with formal systems (Marçal et al., 2021; Park et al., 2011). Housing insecurity may drive child welfare involvement due to concerns about child neglect, in that a child’s basic housing needs may not be sufficiently met or the child may be exposed to unsafe conditions (Evans, 2006; Warren & Font, 2015). In terms of criminal justice contact, housing instability and homelessness are common among incarcerated parents of young children (Muentner et al., 2019). Mothers who are facing housing insecurity and homelessness may be driven to engage in illegal activity out of economic necessity (De Courson & Nettle, 2021), or may be experiencing concurrent risks such as substance use that make them vulnerable to both housing insecurity and criminal justice involvement. Additionally, housing insecurity tends to be higher in communities that are lower income and marginalized due to racism and classism, all of which contribute to higher rates of contact with law enforcement (Kutateladze et al., 2014). High levels of vulnerability, such as those driven by lack of adequate housing, increases the likelihood of families seeking services from or coming under surveillance of formal systems.

IPV also related with both maternal and adolescent depression. There was a significant direct pathway from maternal experiences of IPV to adolescent depression, as well as a mediated pathway through housing insecurity. These pathways suggest that witnessing mothers being abused has direct impacts on children’s mental health, consistent with prior literature documenting an association between witnessing IPV and adolescent depression (Negriff, 2020). The indirect pathway via housing insecurity combines two bodies of literature—one suggesting that IPV is related to adolescent mental health problems (Negriff, 2020), and a second finding that housing insecurity is related to adolescent depression (Hatem et al., 2020). The findings from the current study suggest that IPV is indeed related to adolescent depression, and that this relationship is partially explained through its impact on housing insecurity. When triggered by IPV, housing problems may contribute to heightened chaos and instability that undermine mental health in the transition from childhood to adolescence (Evans et al., 2007; Evans & Kim, 2012).

Maternal depression operated slightly differently. IPV was not directly related to maternal depression, but was indirectly related via child welfare system contact. These findings diverged from prior research that has found that IPV is directly related to depression in women who are survivors (Bonomi, 2006; Golding, 1999; Jouriles et al., 2021), but potential explanations exist for this discrepancy. The present study investigated the link from IPV to maternal depression over 10 years; the long follow-up may have reduced the direct effect of IPV on maternal depression. Furthermore, the inclusion of housing insecurity and system contacts in models to disentangle mechanisms may have explained away variance in maternal depression over the long follow-up. Findings from the present study converged with recent research suggesting IPV can increase the likelihood of child welfare involvement; child exposure to IPV is increasingly considered a form of maltreatment (Cross et al., 2012; Wathen & Macmillan, 2013), thus creating a more immediate bridge between the occurrence of IPV in the home and child protective intervention. A major contribution of the present study is that child welfare involvement after IPV victimization plays a significant role in predicting later depression.

Limitations

Limitations of the presents study must be considered. First, survey items were self-reported, including experiences of IPV, system involvement, and depression. Shame and stigma surrounding all of these concepts may contribute to social desirability bias, thus impacting the reliability of the data. Second, by design the study oversampled unmarried parents, which led to a sample that is lower income than the general population. Third, a dichotomous indicator assessed maternal depression; while this was consistent with diagnostic criteria for major depression disorder in the DSM-IV, it is possible that a continuous measure of symptom prevalence or severity would provide more nuanced findings. Regarding adolescent depression, the applicability of the CES-D scale has been questioned for nonwhite samples (Perreira et al., 2005). Although the latent variable approach addressed some measurement error, future research should consider alternate tools validated for racially diverse populations. Fourth, experiences of IPV were only assessed for mothers who reported being married or partnered; therefore, IPV that extended past the end of a romantic relationship was not captured by the present study. Finally, the analytic sample included youth who spent at least half their time with their mothers; therefore, it is possible that youth spend up to half their time in a different living arrangement not represented by the housing status reported. Thus the measure of housing insecurity should be considered an indicator of any exposure, not a comprehensive picture of the youth’s living environment.

Implications

Despite limitations, the present study offers important policy, practice, and research implications. Taken together, the findings suggest important intervention timepoints to prevent or ameliorate the impact of IPV on maternal and adolescent depression. Housing supports for mothers who are experiencing IPV are critical for interrupting the negative pathways that lead to involvement in criminal justice and child welfare systems as well as maternal and adolescent depression. Survivors of IPV are at a greater risk for housing insecurity, and housing insecurity may be a feared consequence preventing survivors from leaving unsafe situations. Housing supports are critical for improving the mental health of adolescents who have been impacted by IPV. Providing IPV survivors with resources about housing options that will allow them to become safely housed quickly may prevent additional violence as well as the negative sequalae that may not become visible until later. Failure to address housing insecurity among survivors of IPV and their families can contribute to ongoing disparities; low-income families of color are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice (Wildeman & Wakefield, 2014) and child welfare systems (Drake et al., 2009; Jonson-Reid et al., 2009), and meeting housing needs may help prevent entry into these systems following an experience of IPV. Evidence-based housing assistance programs such as Housing First, which prioritizes rapid return to stable housing, should target IPV survivors with children. Furthermore, homeless service systems should prioritize IPV survivors and their families for housing given the risk for further system involvement and mental health needs. Policymakers should further advance protective policies for IPV victims such as eviction protection, emergency housing assistance, and early lease termination measures that allow survivors to maintain stable housing when leaving violent relationships.

Additionally, provision of evidence-based mental health services for children and mothers who have experienced IPV may prevent the escalation of depressive symptoms. The study suggests a profound impact of IPV on adolescent depression, which may not be a target of intervention in traditional IPV treatment. Practitioners should focus on the entire family unit inclusive of both the IPV survivor and their children for assessing impacts of the violence and putting services into place to address trauma.

Research should continue to explore the impact of housing instability on IPV survivors and their offspring mental health. It is possible that the relationship between the risk variables in this study also exist for other mental health problems associated with IPV like generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Further, while this study does use advanced statistical methods, it does not account for the current conditions of housing instability in our country due to the global pandemic. The well-being of survivors and their adolescents is of the upmost importance given stay-at-home orders that may have complicated family violence and housing situations. Future research should also explore popular IPV interventions effectiveness in reducing depressive systems of adolescents who have lived in abusive households.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Katherine E. Marçal

Kathryn Maguire-Jack

Author Biographies

Katherine Marçal, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research engages diverse stakeholders and methodologies to investigate efficient and sustainable strategies to prevent and alleviate housing insecurity for families with children.

Kathryn Showalter, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. Her research examines causes and consequences of intimate partner violence, especially the connection between IPV victimization and employment outcomes.

Kathryn Maguire-Jack, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. A leader in the field of child maltreatment prevention, Dr Maguire-Jack investigates the roles of family and neighborhood in child abuse and neglect.

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