To evaluate the interrelationship of parenting stress, marital violence, and child behavior, a sample (84% African-American) of 27 battered women and 28 nonbattered women having children aged 4 through 12 years underwent extensive and structured interviewing. Results indicated that as parenting stress increased, perceived child behavior problems increased, regardless of the battered status of the women. Battered women, however, reported experiencing significantly more parenting stress and perceived their children as having significantly more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems than did nonbattered women. Battered women perceived their sons as showing slightly more overall behavior problems and internalizing problems than their daughters, whereas daughters showed more externalizing problems. Parenting stress relating to child temperament and nonphysical abuse of battered women were the two significant predictors of child behavior problems. To improve parenting effectiveness among battered women, one must consider the sources of stress, intensity of physical and nonphysical violence, and accumulation of stressors
