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Mothers and Toddlers Exposed to Political Violence: Severity of Exposure, Emotional Availability, Parenting Stress, and Toddlers’ Behavior Problems

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Abstract

This study examined the potential risks of maternal and child exposure to traumatic events resulting from political violence, specifically those related to emotional availability, parenting stress and children’s behavioral problems. It also evaluated the feasibility of mitigating these effects through a play-based group intervention for conjoint dyads of mothers and toddlers. Results from 54 dyads show that the higher maternal and especially child exposure to political violence and other trauma, the lower their emotional availability in dyadic interactions (r = .40, p < .01). Emotional availability was associated with the mother’s parenting stress, and both parenting stress and emotional availability were associated with the mother’s perceptions of her child’s behavior problems. Comparisons of observed emotional availability, child behavior problems as perceived by the mother, and reported stress in 28 dyads before and after participating in the intervention suggest that it may be possible to bolster emotional availability and to reduce child’s behavior problems.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the cooperation of the participating families and for the assistance provided by the Israeli Center for the treatment of Psychotrauma. We thank our research assistants: Rachel Cohen, Moriya Harel, Liat Regev-Feder, Tal Rimon, Shir Sherez.

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Author notes

  1. Esther Cohen

    Present address: Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    Esther Cohen

  2. School of Social Work and Social Wefare, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    Cory Shulman

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  1. Esther Cohen
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Correspondence to Esther Cohen.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

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Cohen, E., Shulman, C. Mothers and Toddlers Exposed to Political Violence: Severity of Exposure, Emotional Availability, Parenting Stress, and Toddlers’ Behavior Problems. Journ Child Adol Trauma 12, 131–140 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0197-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0197-1

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