Exploring the role of mothers during exposure to a traumatic event

De rol van moeders tijdens blootstelling aan een traumatische gebeurtenis

Post-Hoc analyzes decomposing the three-way interaction between maternal PTSD, threat context, and updating of the prediction of child PTSD. The figure presents the simple two-way interactions between maternal PTSD (x-axis) and threat context (line patterns) by update level (panels). Axes represent non-standardized scores; βs represent standardized simple slopes. *p Stress and health (2024). DOI: 10.1002/smi.3456

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder that develops after exposure to one or more traumatic events. It is characterized by symptoms such as avoidance, changes in cognition and mood, and changes in arousal and reactivity.

A research group from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev examined the link between these symptoms in families in the southern region of Israel and the calming role of the mother. The research results were published in the news Stress and health.

PTSD in children under the age of six can manifest through play, reenacting traumatic themes or aspects related to the traumatic event, and can also manifest in anxiety-provoking dreams. Previous research has shown that the mother’s regulatory function has an impact on traumatic experiences. That function is to help her children organize their thoughts and actions.

For example, preparing breakfast or completing a task for school or work allows children to see things from different perspectives, notice new details in their environment and act accordingly. In emergency situations, this ability becomes even sharper, allowing mothers to keep their children safe and guide them to the safe room in real time, helping children make better decisions in a changing and potentially threatening reality.

A research group led by Prof. Naama Atzaba-Poria, head of the Duet Center at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, investigated the link between PTSD symptoms in parents and children and the mother’s regulatory function. A successful regulatory function is characterized by the ability to postpone and reorganize responses based on a changing reality.

For example, if a child is frightened by a loud noise from a passing airplane, and the mother notices this and explains the cause to the child, she has shown sensitivity and awareness of the child’s needs in a changing reality. If sirens were to sound in their area on the same morning and the changing reality becomes a threat to safety, this capability becomes even more important.

Families living in southern Israel are exposed to varying levels of security threats, ranging from families living in communities near Gaza (up to 20 km from the Gaza Strip) to more distant settlements in the southern part of the country ( up to 40 km from the Gaza Strip). Gaza Strip).

The study was conducted among a sample of 131 mothers and their first-born children, aged 10 to 45 months (52% boys), as they approached the arrival of their second child (in the third trimester of pregnancy). Most parents were married and most families were exposed to varying degrees of threats and rocket fire, especially in cities such as Beer-Sheva, Sderot and Ashkelon.

The mothers performed computerized tasks to assess their executive functions, such as the ability to update the contents of working memory or suppress a dominant response that is irrelevant to the situation. In addition, they completed online questionnaires aimed at identifying symptoms of post-traumatic stress in both the mothers and the children.

The results indicated that children showed increased levels of PTSD symptoms when their mothers experienced higher levels of PTSD symptoms. However, the mother’s ability to mediate the threatening situation significantly reduced the association between mother’s and child’s PTSD symptoms, reducing the potential influence of maternal mental health, particularly PTSD symptoms, on mental health of the child in the threatened region was compensated.

In addition, mothers must be able to process information relevant to the child and the situation efficiently and quickly (e.g., understanding the threat and quickly evacuating to a safe room), communicating the situation to the child, and expressing her own and the child’s emotions. regulate child. Therefore, the mother’s ability to effectively convey relevant information can contribute to her ability to respond appropriately to the child at critical moments and strengthen the child’s personal resilience.

The preoccupation with anxiety-provoking thoughts and worries may become more apparent during and after such an event. Therefore, the ability to keep the child informed and guided can help not only better cope with the stressful event itself, but also long-term avoidance of worries related to exposure to past and future safety threats.

Additionally, the research suggested that mothers with high levels of self-regulation may be better able to separate their stress response from that of their children, giving children a sense of being seen and understood, which may reduce children’s risk of post-natal stress to develop. -traumatic stress later.

“It appears that the mother’s ability to efficiently monitor relevant information in her environment and delay impulsive responses contributes to her ability to respond more reflectively, recognize her children’s needs and enhance their sense of to increase safety. Consequently, children may feel more protected and, therefore, be at lower risk of developing PTSD symptoms,” explains Prof. Atzaba-Poria.

“In clinical practice and in everyday life, these findings may be useful in identifying families who may need more support and assistance under complex security threats.”

Data collection took place from October 2018 to March 2020 (before the Iron Swords War). The results shed light on periods when heightened security threats increased the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), highlighting the role of parental self-regulation in preventing the development of PTSD symptoms.

The Duet Center continues to offer programs for parents in communities near the Gaza Strip, recognizing the importance of parents’ reflective functioning and the need to increase parents’ responsiveness to better deal with uncertainty and emergencies, potentially the development of PTSD symptoms is prevented.

The research team consisted of Michal Levy, Dr. Tal Yatziv, Dr. Kinneret Levavi, Dr. Porat Yakov, Prof. Alison Pike, Prof. Kirby Theater-Deckard, Dr. Amnon Hadar, Dr. Guy Bar, Dr. Miron Froimovici and Prof. Naama Atzaba-Poria.

More information:
Michal Levy et al., The link between maternal and child posttraumatic stress symptoms among families in southern Israel: the buffering role of maternal executive functions, Stress and health (2024). DOI: 10.1002/smi.3456

Provided by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev


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