Intimate Partner Violence Against Brazilian Mothers is Associated With Their Children’s Lower Quality-of-Life Scores: A Cross-Sectional Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to family and routine reorganization, triggering social problems. Women were further exposed to domestic violence, especially intimate partner violence (IPV), with consequences to their and their children’s health. However, few Brazilian studies address the issue, especially considering the pandemic and its restrictive measures. The objective was to verify the relationship between mothers’/caregivers’ IPV and their children’s neuropsychomotor development (NPMD) and quality of life (QOL) during the pandemic. Seven hundred one female mothers/caregivers of children (0-12 years old) responded to the online epidemiological inquiry. NPMD was investigated with the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI-short version); QOL, with the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™); and IPV, with the Composite Abuse Scale (CAS). The independence chi-square test was used, with Fisher’s exact statistics, in SPSS Statistics 27®. Children whose mothers were exposed to IPV were 2.68 times as likely to have a “low” QOL score (χ2(1) = 13.144, P < .001; φ = 0.137). This indicates a possible environmental influence on the children’s QOL, which may have been aggravated by strict social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.