Griffing, S., Tuller, A., Lin, M., & Sage, R. (2011, August). The relationship between PTSD symptomatology and parenting stress in women exposed to domestic violence. Poster to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.

Few studies have examined the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on parenting. This is an important area for investigation, as the fearfulness and sense of helplessness that characterize PTSD are likely to affect one’s ability to accurately recognize danger and to promote a sense of safety in one's child (Appleyard & Osofsky, 2003. Parenting stress, which arises specifically from the demands of parenting (Abidin, 1995), may mediate the relationship between PTSD and parenting behavior.
This study examines the extent to which PTSD symptoms are associated with elevated parenting stress in a sample of women seeking shelter to leave an abusive relationship. This is an important area for investigation, given the high rates of PTSD among abused women, the possible impact of PTSD on parenting, and the multiple parenting-related and other stressors that women are likely to experience as they leave an abusive relationship. We hypothesized that women who met probable criteria for PTSD, compared to women who did not, would report elevated parenting stress and would be more likely to display clinically significant levels of parenting stress.