Trauma Exposure in Relation to the Content of Mother-Child Emotional Conversations and Quality of Interaction.

Mathilde Overbeek,J De Schipper,Nina Koren-Karie,Adi Ben-Haim,Patricia Dreier Gligoor,Carlo Schuengel

doi:10.3390/ijerph16050805

Abstract

Parent-child conversations contribute to understanding and regulating children’s emotions. Similarities and differences in discussed topics, quality of interaction and coherence/elaboration in mother-child conversations about emotional experiences of the child were studied in dyads who had been exposed to interpersonal trauma (N = 213) and non-trauma-exposed dyads (N = 86). Results showed that in conversations about negative emotions, trauma-exposed children more often discussed trauma topics and focused less on relationship topics than non-trauma-exposed children. Trauma-exposed dyads found it more difficult to come up with a story. The most common topics chosen by dyads to discuss for each emotion were mostly similar between trauma-exposed dyads and non-trauma-exposed dyads. Dyads exposed to interpersonal traumatic events showed lower quality of interaction and less coherence/elaboration than dyads who had not experienced traumatic events. Discussion of traumatic topics was associated with lower quality of mother-child interaction and less coherent dialogues. In conclusion, the effect of the trauma is seen at several levels in mother-child interaction: topics, behavior and coherence. A focus on support in developing a secure relationship after trauma may be important for intervention.

Highlights

Parents have a crucial role in helping children understand their inner world and supporting them in emotion regulation [1,2]
Children discover whether there are emotional subjects to which their parents are attentive compared to others to which they are not. During these conversations children learn whether they can rely on their parent to assist them through the reconstruction of a sequence of events in a meaningful and coherent manner. They gain an understanding of whether their parent is able to help them cope with negative feelings and regain a sense of confidence and security, when recalling past aversive or traumatic events [3,4]
The current study aims to fill this gap by focusing on all three aspects—the quality of mother-child interaction, coherence/elaboration of the narratives and the content of the stories—in mother-child conversations about different emotional experiences of dyads with and without trauma exposure

Summary

Introduction

Parents have a crucial role in helping children understand their inner world and supporting them in emotion regulation [1,2]. Children discover whether there are emotional subjects to which their parents are attentive compared to others to which they are not During these conversations children learn whether they can rely on their parent to assist them through the reconstruction of a sequence of events in a meaningful and coherent manner. They gain an understanding of whether their parent is able to help them cope with negative feelings and regain a sense of confidence and security, when recalling past aversive or traumatic events [3,4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion