5 - (IOP 11) Evaluating the Impact of a Pilot Intervention for Pregnant Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence on Parenting Attitudes: The Pregnant Moms’ Empowerment Program - Mexico

Maternal exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) may increase risk for negative parenting practices and reduce positive parenting. One pathway for intervention to promote positive parenting outcomes among mothers experiencing IPV is through the modification of parenting beliefs. The Pregnant Moms’ Empowerment Program (PMEP), a brief group intervention delivered during pregnancy for women exposed to IPV, has shown benefits on parenting for IPV-exposed women living in the United States. Replicating this research across contexts and populations is critical for establishing PMEP’s broader impacts. The current study evaluated a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of PMEP-Mexico, a culturally adapted version of the PMEP group intervention delivered virtually during pregnancy for Mexican women exposed to IPV. In this study, we compared parenting attitudes among 90 pregnant, IPV-exposed women (Mage=27.53, SD=5.91) assigned to either an active (PMEP-Mexico intervention; n=43) or a control (referrals to local services; n=47) condition. Those in the active condition received PMEP-Mexico, which included five weeks of content regarding mental health, healthy relationships, infant care, and early parenting delivered via psychoeducation and interactive activities. Mothers self-reported on parenting and child rearing attitudes regarding developmentally appropriate expectations of children, parental empathy toward children’s needs, parent-child role responsibilities, and corporal punishment via the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI). Multilevel modeling was used to compare the intervention and control groups at the conclusion of the intervention, which was six weeks after their baseline assessment. Analyses controlled for education and caring for other biological children. Participation in the intervention was not significantly associated with changes in parenting beliefs on any of the AAPI scales. Regarding factors associated with parenting beliefs at baseline, women with higher educational attainment reported more developmentally appropriate expectations of children (=0.90, p=.021), greater parental empathy toward children’s needs (=1.09, p=.004) and more appropriate beliefs regarding parent-child role responsibilities (=1.09, p=.002). Further, not being a caretaker for other biological children was associated with higher baseline levels of parental empathy toward children’s needs (=-2.01, p=.042). Beliefs regarding the use of corporal punishment were not significantly associated with any variables in the model. Findings indicate that PMEP-Mexico did not promote more positive and nurturing parenting attitudes; thus, more work is needed to understand what modifiable mechanisms may promote positive parenting beliefs.