A new generation: How refugee trauma affects parenting and child development

Parental traumatization has been proposed as a risk factor for child development, but the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In this dissertation refugee and asylum seeker parents with traumatic experiences were assessed with their young non traumatized children to investigate the effect of posttraumatic stress on parenting and child development. To understand these complex dynamics we looked at two main questions: 1. How does traumatization affect the asylum seeker or refugee parent and his/her non traumatized child? 2. And, is attachment a key in understanding relational patterns between the traumatized asylum seeker or refugee parent and his/her non traumatized child? The results lead to the conclusion that symptoms of posttraumatic stress can affect parenting behavior and child development. More symptoms of posttraumatic stress are related to less sensitive, less structuring, more hostile, and more intrusive parenting behavior. On a trend level these symptoms are even related to extremely insensitive parenting behavior. Mothers and fathers are equally affected. Parents who have limited access to secure attachment representations (reflected in secure base scripts) show more insensitive parenting behavior. This risk increases when these parents report symptoms of posttraumatic stress as well. Despite these noteworthy relations between posttraumatic stress and parenting, mainly a direct relation between posttraumatic stress and child development was established. The young, non traumatized children of these symptomatic parents are observed to be less responsive to and less involved with their parents. As an explanation, a reduced regulation of arousal and affect has been proposed. The attachment of the children is more often insecure or even disorganized. Parents report more anxious and depressive behaviors of these children. No differences were found in mental and motor development. Some dyads face extra challenges, for example, when the child’s origin is connected to the traumatic experience, when the parent exhibits frightened, frightening or dissociative parenting behavior or when the family is in an asylum procedure. The evidence suggests that although many parents recover well after extreme life events and many children show resilience despite having affected parents, traumatization can cause parenting limitations, and these limitations can disrupt the development of the young child. Keywords PTSD, trauma, parent-child interaction, attachment, child development, refugee, second generation, preschool Main conclusions The evidence suggests that although many parents recover well after extreme life events and many children show resilience despite having affected parents, traumatization can cause parenting limitations, and these limitations can disrupt the development of the young child