Mothers with a History of Childhood Abuse Show Significant Bonding Impairments Towards their Infant

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Maternal history of abuse has been proposed as a risk factor for child maltreatment but the background of this "cycle of abuse" is as yet poorly understood. As a contribution towards a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, this study analyzed whether maternal bonding is altered by maternal experiences of physical or sexual abuse during their upbringing. To form the index group, women who reached a cut-off for severe sexual and/or physical abuse in the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and whose children were term babies with APGAR-Scores>7 were included in the study. Maternal bonding was compared with a group of mother-infant pairs matched for infant gender, maternal education, marital status, number of infants and birth weight. The results show that 12-month postnatal mothers with a history of physical or sexual abuse show a significant impairment of bonding towards their children. No impact of maternal abuse on child cognitive, motor and behavioral development in the first year was found. Impaired bonding patterns in mothers with a history of abuse should be considered as a potential risk factor for the offspring as well as for the future mother-infant relationship.