Young children traumatized by organized violence together with their mothers – The critical effects of damaged internal representations

Abstract

Three examples of young Kosovar children who were exposed to brutal violence together with their mothers are presented to illustrate how important it is to understand the impact of traumatic events on young children's development from the perspective of the parent – child relationship. The traumatized mothers' internal representations of self and self-being-together-with-child were damaged, and this in turn led to their care-giving system and internal representations of the children being negatively affected. No longer being able to see themselves as protective and loving parents, the mothers were unable to respond to their children with care-giving behaviour. The traumatized children's increased attachment behaviour and posttraumatic symptoms functioned as a trigger for posttraumatic symptoms in the mothers and contributed to a disengagement of the care-giving system. The on-going process disrupted the previous attachment pattern in mother – child interaction and a disorganized attachment pattern developed.