Psychological features of girls whose mothers survived a vital stress before pregnancy in the Republic of Dagestan

Abstract

Relevance. According to the results of several recent studies, a high risk of a terrorist threat causes extremely negative emotions with increased anxiety, thus disrupting intersystem regulation and triggering somatic disorders. Intention. To assess psychological status of girls whose mothers survived high terrorist threat. Methods. Psychodiagnosis results from 548 girls aged 11–14 years old from the Republic of Dagestan were analyzed. Mothers of 270 of them were exposed to the threat of terrorism and terrorist occupation in 1999, and 278 girls were the offspring of mothers not exposed to the vital stress. The analysis showed that mild or masked depression occurred more frequently in the offspring of mothers with life-threatening exposure compared to girls whose mothers have not experienced the vital stress. Results and Discussion. Girls whose mothers with life-threatening experience in preconception period demonstrated a high level of neuroticism combined with introvertness and falsity, they tended to low self-esteem, which is consistent with high aggressiveness and predisposes to disruption of interpersonal contacts and social adaptation in general. They tended to coldness, formal contacts, as a rule, showed little interest in the life of the school community and behaved destructively in conflicts. As compared to girls whose mothers had not suffered vital stress, levels of physical aggression, negativism, suspiciousness, and verbal aggression were high. Fear, unjustified resentment, weak emotional control, low level of responsibility and moodiness, increased impulsivity, anxiety, distractibility and lack of concentration were also typical. The most important personality characteristics of these girls were as follows: low level of emotional stability, frustration and high level of anxiety. Conclusion. The obtained results show detrimental effects of the vital stress in mothers on the mental status of their offspring in the long term.