Suffering from trauma: Assessing the impact of trauma experiences and PTSD symptoms on parents’ attachment representations and sensitivity towards their children.
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Object. Adult attachment reflects the mental representation of past and present attachment experiences and provides a personal framework to regulate behavior and expectations in interpersonal relationships. Insecure attachment representations have been found to pose several risks, such as negative consequences for mental and physical health and parenting capacities. Because traumatic experiences have the possibility to negatively influence the way people think about themselves, others and the world, the aim of this study was to assess whether PTSD symptoms and traumatic experiences had an influence on the security of attachment representations. This could also account for differences in post-trauma adjustment and parenting. Therefore, a second aim of this study was to test whether attachment representations served as a moderator between the effect of PTSD on parental sensitivity. Measures. 65 asylum-seeker and refugee parents were analyzed regarding the number of traumatic experiences and symptoms of PTSD (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire), parental sensitivity (Emotional Availability Scales) and attachment representations (Secure Base Scriptedness). Results. In contrast to our expectations, posttraumatic stress symptoms and traumatic experiences did not affect parent’s attachment security. In line with our expectations, posttraumatic stress symptoms and attachment security both had a significant influence on parental sensitivity, where attachment representations moderated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and parental sensitivity. Conclusions. The results show that when the number of PTSD symptoms is high, the lack of a secure attachment representation increases the risk of insensitive parenting. These findings suggest that a parent’s sensitivity is affected not just by attachment representations but also by the conjunction of risk factors such as traumatic experiences, symptoms of PTSD and insecure attachment representations. Therefore, parents who suffered from trauma need to be supported in (re)establishing secure models of self, others and the world and need to be guided in their interaction with their children, so that they will be able to offer their child a sensitive and secure interaction.
Author: N Waal
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1442342