Maternal exposure to intimate partner violence during pregnancy and risk of neurological impairment among infants

Background: About one in four women in the United States reports intimate partner violence ( IPV) at some point in their lifetime, and about 3.3 to 17.8 million children experience IPV yearly. While many studies have been conducted on the effects of IPV on maternal health and wellbeing, not much is known about how maternal IPV exposure may affect infants, including neurological impairment. Method: The present study examines the association between baseline violence scores of pregnant women participating in the Domestic Violence Enhanced Home Visitation Program (DOVE), and neurological impairment of their children at 12 months. A total of 178 women, mean age 24 years, with severe, moderate, minor and mild exposure were included in the analysis. Baseline violence determined by the Severity of Violence Against Women Scale (SVAWS) and neurological scores measured with the Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener (BINS) were used. One-way ANOVA was used to test mean difference in neurological (BINS) scores among the different levels of IPV exposure. Multivariate analysis was used to control for the effects of maternal income, children's health, well child check-up, and maternal depression on neurological impairment. Results: Preliminary trends show a statistically significant difference in neurological scores across the 4 groups (p<0.0066). Results also show statistical significance for participants from rural areas (p< 0.02) compared to urban. Multiple regression models show that the factors did not predict changes in neurological scores among the groups. Conclusion: Maternal exposure to IPV during pregnancy may be related to neurological impairment in children later in life.