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Trauma and Parenting: Informing Clinical Practice with Recent Research Findings

  • Mental Health (WF Njoroge and TD Benton, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common consequence of interpersonal violence (IPV). Maternal IPV-related PTSD has been shown to interfere with the mothers’ ability to join with their children in mutual emotion regulation, a pre-requisite for the development of self-regulation. Studies have shown that parental reflective functioning (PRF; i.e., the attribution of mental states that may be inferred to motivate interactive behavior) and maternal sensitivity (MS) are protective factors. Both PRF and MS are associated with secure child-parent attachment. The stronger these factors are at baseline, the more they improve the chances of a mother with IPV-PTSD seeking help in order to benefit quickly from both physical and mental health assessment and intervention. Pediatricians should routinely assess the history of IPV in the family environment taking into account the parent-child relationship, through observing parent-child interaction and listening to how the parent talks about her child and other important attachment relationships. Health professionals can learn to support and model PRF with traumatized parents.

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Notes

  1. This clinical case has been described in more detail in the following chapter: Schechter, D.S., Rusconi Serpa, S. Understanding how traumatized mothers process theirs toddlers’ affective communication under stress: Towards preventive intervention for families at high risk for intergenerational violence. Early Parenting Research and Prevention for Disorder: Psychoanalytic Research at Interdisciplinary Frontiers. Emde, R.M., Leuzinger-Bohleber (Eds.). London: Karnac Books; 2014. pp.90-117

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledgement gratefully the support of the following funders without whom the research Geneva Early Childhood Stress Project would not be possible: The National Center for Competence in Research on the Synaptic Bases of Mental Disorders (NCCR-SYNAPSY) of the Swiss National Science Foundation (no. 51AU40_125759), Fondation Prim’Enfance the Oak Foundation, and the Gertrude von Meissner Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland

    Francesca Suardi PhD, Molly Rothenberg, Sandra Rusconi Serpa & Daniel Schechter

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  1. Francesca Suardi PhD
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  2. Molly Rothenberg
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  3. Sandra Rusconi Serpa
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  4. Daniel Schechter
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Correspondence to Daniel Schechter.

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Francesca Suardi declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Molly Rothenberg declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Sandra Rusconi Serpa declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Daniel Schechter declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Mental Health

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Suardi, F., Rothenberg, M., Serpa, S.R. et al. Trauma and Parenting: Informing Clinical Practice with Recent Research Findings. Curr Treat Options Peds 3, 1–14 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40746-017-0075-y

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