The Correlation Between Exposure to Violence and Parental Monitoring: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers From Palestinian–Israeli Families

Abstract

In this study, I investigated the correlations between retrospectively reported experiences of child abuse in the family-of-origin and exposure to community violence as adults on parental monitoring among Palestinian–Israeli parents. A sample of 760 parents (453 mothers, 59.6%) participated in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used. Results showed that both experiencing child abuse and community violence victimization were associated with high levels of parental stress, and experiencing child abuse was also associated with low levels of parental monitoring. Indirect effects of parental stress were found between both types of violence exposure and parental monitoring. Among mothers, there were additional indirect effects between violence exposure and parental monitoring. These findings suggest that exposure to multiple contexts of violence correlated with parental behaviours, and parenting programmes should focus on reducing parental stress and improving parental monitoring, considering the gender differences. Overall, this study highlights the importance of addressing the outcomes of trauma on parenting monitoring, which can have significant implications for public health.