Abstract
The study aims to determine children’s knowledge about their parents’ exposure to traumatic events and factors associated with such knowledge. Children (ages 9–16) and their parents with a range of exposures to trauma, including the 9/11 attack, answered questions about parental exposure to life threatening events. A child’s accurate knowledge about parental exposure was defined as an agreement between parent and child on lifetime presence or absence of traumatic events. The present study findings suggest that children were often unaware about their parents’ exposures to life threatening events. Knowledge about fathers’ exposure was more accurate when the child was older, fathers had direct exposure to 9/11, or had been a first responder. Children of mothers with depression were less likely to have accurate knowledge about their mothers’ exposure compared to children of non-depressed mothers. Overall, findings indicated that children are generally unaware of parental (particularly maternal) exposure to traumatic events. The next step is to determine how knowledge about parental trauma exposure impacts children.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brackis-Cott, E., Mellins, C. A., Dolezal, C., & Spiegel, D. (2007). The mental health risk of mothers and children: the role of maternal HIV infection. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 27(1), 67–89. doi:10.1177/0272431606294824.
Brunet A., Weiss D., Best S.R., Liberman A., Fagan J., & Marmar C.R. (1998) Assessing recurring traumatic exposure: the critical incident history questionnaire. Northbrook: The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, 49.
Hoven, C. W., Duarte, C. S., Wu, P., Doan, T., Singh, N., Mandell, D. J., Bin, F., Teichman, Y., Wicks, J., Musa, G., & Cohen, P. (2009). Parental exposure to mass violence and child mental health: The first responder and WTC evacuee study. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 12(2), 95–112.
Kilpatrick, D. G., Resnick, H. S., Milanak, M. E., Miller, M. W., Keyes, K. M., & Friedman, M. J. (2013). National estimates of exposure to traumatic events and PTSD prevalence using DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26(5), 537–547.
Lee, M. B., Lester, P., & Rotheram-Borus, M. J. (2002). The relationship between adjustment of mothers with HIV and their Adolescent daughters. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(1), 71–84.
Rochat, T. J., Mitchell, J., Lubbe, A. M., Stein, A., Tomlinson, M., & Bland, R. M. (2017). Communication about HIV and death: Maternal reports of primary school-aged children's questions after maternal HIV disclosure in rural South Africa. Social Science & Medicine, 172, 124–134.
Shaffer, D., Fisher, P., Lucas, C. P., Dulcan, M. K., & Schwab-Stone, M. E. (2000). NIMH diagnostic Interview schedule for children version IV (NIMH DISC-IV): description, differences from previous versions, and reliability of some common diagnoses. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39(1), 28–38.
Tercyak, K. P., Mays, D., DeMarco, T. A., Peshkin, B. N., Valdimarsdottir, H. B., Schneider, K. A., et al. (2013). Decisional outcomes of maternal disclosure of BRCA1/2 genetic test results to children. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers, 22(7), 1260–1266.
van Ee, E., Kleber, R. J., & Jongmans, M. J. (2016). Relational patterns between caregivers with PTSD and their nonexposed children: A review. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 17(2), 186–203.
Weathers, F. W., Litz, B. T., Herman, D. S., & Huska, J. (1993). The PTSD checklist: Reliability, validity, & diagnostic utility. Boston: National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Wittchen, H. U. (1994). Reliability and validity studies of the WHO--composite International diagnostic Interview (CIDI): a critical review. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 28(1), 57–84.
Zerach, G., Kanat-Maymon, Y., Aloni, R., & Solomon, Z. (2016). The role of fathers’ psychopathology in the intergenerational transmission of captivity trauma: a twenty three-year longitudinal study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 190, 84–92.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a grant from the NICHD (5R01 HD046786) to Christina W. Hoven, Principal Investigator. The authors would like to acknowledge the careful editorial support of Grace Bensimon.
Children of First Responder and WTC Evacuee Study (5R01 HD046786 PI: CW Hoven)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Standards and Informed Consent
The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent (or assent for children) was obtained from all participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Duarte, C.S., Eisenberg, R., Musa, G.J. et al. Children’s Knowledge about Parental Exposure to Trauma. Journ Child Adol Trauma 12, 31–35 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0159-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0159-7