Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Depress Anxiety. 2021 Dec;38(12):1298-1312. doi: 10.1002/da.23196. Epub 2021 Jul 12.
Maternal psychopathology and caregiving behavior are linked with child anxiety and these associations may be particularly salient when families face mass trauma together and members influence each other's symptomatology and resilience. Despite the well-known mother-to-child effects, less research addressed the longitudinal bidirectional effects of maternal and child's anxiety symptoms on each other.
Mothers and children exposed to chronic war-related trauma from Sderot, Israel, and comparison group were followed at three time-points; Early childhood (T1:N = 232, M = 2.76 years), late childhood (T3:N = 176, M = 9.3 years), and early adolescence (T4:N = 110, M = 11.66 years). At each time-point maternal and child's anxiety symptoms were evaluated via questionnaires and maternal sensitivity was coded from videotaped observations of parent-child interactions. Bidirectional associations were examined using traditional cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and CLPM with random intercepts (RI-CLPM).
Trauma-exposed mothers and children exhibited more anxiety symptoms and lower maternal sensitivity. Cross-lagged panel models revealed cross-time bidirectional associations between maternal anxiety and child anxiety from early to late childhood. Child anxiety at each time-point predicted maternal anxiety and maternal sensitivity at the next stage; however, maternal sensitivity did not show longitudinal associations with child anxiety, highlighting children's role in shaping caregiving.
Findings demonstrate bidirectional cross-generational influences of mother and child on each other's anxiety in contexts of trauma and pinpoint early childhood as a sensitive period for such mutual influences. Children's increased anxiety following trauma appears to be further exacerbated via its impact on increasing maternal anxiety and compromising sensitive caregiving, underscoring the potential benefits of parental and mother-child interventions for trauma-exposed populations.
产妇精神病理学和养育行为与儿童焦虑有关，当家庭共同面临大规模创伤时，这些关联可能尤为突出，因为家庭成员会相互影响彼此的症状和适应能力。尽管众所周知存在母婴效应，但较少有研究涉及母亲和儿童焦虑症状之间的纵向双向相互影响。
来自以色列斯德洛特的经历慢性战争相关创伤的母亲和儿童及其对照组在三个时间点接受了随访：幼儿期（T1：N=232，M=2.76 岁）、儿童晚期（T3：N=176，M=9.3 岁）和青少年早期（T4：N=110，M=11.66 岁）。在每个时间点，通过问卷评估母亲和儿童的焦虑症状，并通过对父母-子女互动的视频观察来编码母亲的敏感性。使用传统的交叉滞后面板模型（CLPM）和带有随机截距的 CLPM（RI-CLPM）来检查双向关联。
经历创伤的母亲和儿童表现出更多的焦虑症状和较低的母亲敏感性。交叉滞后面板模型显示，从幼儿期到儿童晚期，母亲焦虑和儿童焦虑之间存在跨时间的双向关联。每个时间点的儿童焦虑都预测了下一个阶段的母亲焦虑和母亲敏感性；然而，母亲敏感性与儿童焦虑没有纵向关联，突出了儿童在塑造养育方式中的作用。
研究结果表明，在创伤背景下，母亲和儿童彼此的焦虑存在双向跨代影响，并指出幼儿期是这种相互影响的敏感时期。儿童在创伤后出现的焦虑增加似乎进一步加剧了其对增加母亲焦虑和损害敏感养育的影响，强调了针对创伤暴露人群的父母和母子干预的潜在益处。
