Examining links between maternal history of childhood sexual abuse, parental reflective functioning, and parenting stress
Résumé
Introduction: Extant literature suggests that survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may be particularly at risk of experiencing high levels of parenting stress when taking care of their own children (Hugill et al., 2017). Research also points to the importance of examining indirect pathways from CSA to subsequent parenting stress (Hugill et al., 2017). In particular, parental reflective functioning (PRF) i.e., the ability to reflect upon one’s own and one’s child’s internal experience (Slade, 2005) could contribute to explaining how CSA leads to increased parenting stress: Maternal history of CSA has been shown to be negatively associated with the mother’s ability to conceive of her child’s inner world (Koren-Karie & Getzler-Yosef, 2019) and poorer PRF is related to increased parenting stress (Nijssens et al., 2018).
Aim of the study: This ongoing study aims at examining (1) whether severity of maternal CSA is related to parenting stress and (2) whether this link is mediated by PRF.
Material and methods: Thirty-two mothers of children (12 girls; 1 to 7 years old, M = 3.4) followed by child welfare services completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, and the Parenting Stress Index.
Conclusions: Results of Partial Least Squares Path Modeling failed to provide evidence for an association between maternal history of CSA and parenting stress (direct effect: b = -0.03; indirect effect: b = 0.14). However, less optimal PRF was associated with more parenting stress (b = 0.64). The model explained 61% of the variance in parenting stress. These findings highlight the importance of interventions aimed at enhancing PRF in high risk contexts.
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