The following is a summary of “Longitudinal predictors of children’s self-blame appraisals among military families reported for family violence,” published in the January 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Rancher et al.
Children’s self-blame evaluations stemming from family violence incidents can significantly affect their mental well-being, yet the factors contributing to these assessments’ development over time remain poorly understood. This study aimed to analyze the stability and predictive elements linked to children’s self-blame assessments following family violence reports. A cohort of 195 children aged 7 to 17 years (63% female) was recruited through the United States Navy’s Family Advocacy Program, examining their self-blame tendencies at three time points: baseline, 9–12 months, and 18–24 months.
The baseline evaluations also encompassed their victimization encounters, levels of caregiver-child discord, and depression. Univariate analyses highlighted associations between self-blame and several factors: victimization resulting in injury, the number of perpetrators, types of victimization, caregiver-child conflict, and depression. However, when integrated into a longitudinal multilevel model, solely caregiver-child conflict (b = 0.08, p = .007) and baseline depression (b = 0.06, p = .013) emerged as predictors for increased self-blame. These results suggest that evaluating victimization characteristics, caregiver-child relationships, and depressive symptoms could aid clinicians and researchers in identifying children at higher risk for developing self-blame attitudes consequent to family violence experiences.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213423005847