The association between maternal and child posttraumatic stress symptoms among families living in southern Israel: The buffering role of maternal executive functions.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a prolonged stress and anxiety response that occurs after exposure to a traumatic event. Research shows that both parental and child posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are correlated but parental executive functions (EFs) could buffer this link. EFs refers to a group of high-level cognitive processes that enable self-regulation of thoughts and actions to achieve goal-directed behaviours and can be of importance for both positive parenting interactions and effective coping skills for PTSS. Our study aimed to (1) examine the link between maternal and child PTSS and the moderating role of varying degrees of exposure to severe security threats context, and (2) to identify the moderating role of maternal EFs in this interaction, among families living in southern Israel. Our sample included 131 mothers in their second pregnancy and their firstborn children. Mothers performed computerised tasks to assess their EFs and they reported on their own and their child's PTSS. Results revealed a positive correlation between maternal PTSS and child PTSS. However, the link between maternal and child PTSS was moderated by maternal working memory updating abilities and threat context severity. Among mothers with lower updating capacities, the association between maternal and child symptoms was stronger under higher threat contexts; conversely, among mothers with higher maternal updating abilities, threat context did not modulate the link between maternal and child PTSS, suggesting a stress-buffering effect. Our study contributes to the growing literature on the significant role of parental EFs in the context of parent-child interactions.

Firstborn's empathy and the sibling relationship quality: The moderating role of maternal emotional availability.

This study examined how a firstborn child's empathy interacts with maternal emotional availability (EA) to predict later positive sibling relationships. The study included 108 families expecting a second child who also had a 10- to 45-month-old firstborn child (M = 24.6 months, SD = 7.42; 58 girls). Before the second-born child arrived, the firstborn child's empathic abilities were measured, and a mother-child play interaction was videotaped and coded for maternal EA. At 16-18 months postpartum, mothers completed questionnaires assessing the quality of the sibling relationship. Maternal EA moderated the link between the firstborn's cognitive and emotional empathy and the quality of the sibling relationship. Higher levels of emotional and cognitive empathy predicted better sibling relationships for children whose mothers were more emotionally available. Implications for early interventions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal Perceptions and Responsiveness to Cry in Armed Conflict Zones: Links to Child Behavior Problems.

Crying is a typical infant behavior that activates parental caregiving behaviors, acting as "human alarms" important for the infant's survival. When living under war-related threat, the auditory system may be sensitized given its importance for survival, potentially impacting maternal cry processing. Children living in armed-conflict zones are at increased risk for behavior problems, which may relate to both direct exposure and indirect effects through their parents' perceptions and behaviors. This hypothesis was examined in a sample of mothers and their first-born children (aged 10-45 months) living in the Gaza vicinity area in Israel, chronically exposed to missile alarms (high-exposure; n = 45), and a comparison group (low-exposure; n = 86). Group differences in child behavior problems and maternal perceptions of and responsiveness to cry were investigated. A moderated indirect-effect of maternal cry perceptions on child behavior problems via maternal responsiveness to cry was examined. In the high-exposure group, children had more externalizing problems and mothers rated cries as more aversive. Maternal cry perception was indirectly related to child behavior problems via responsiveness to cry only in the high-exposure group: higher perceptions of cry as aversive or the child as distressed were related to faster responding to crying, and faster cry responsiveness was linked with fewer behavior problems. Results suggest that in armed-conflict zones with auditory warning signals, the parental caring system may be easily activated by cries due to the strong association between alarms and threat. Furthermore, children may need their mothers to react faster when feeling distressed, possibly because of the surrounding threat.

The potential moderating role of living in a conflict area on the link between classroom psychosocial stressors, perceived stress and change in anxiety symptoms in Israeli school children.

Background: Perceived stress associated with relational victimization from peers and conflictual relations with the teacher have been linked with the development of anxiety symptoms in children. Living in conditions of ongoing stress from the broader environment has also been related to anxiety symptoms in children. In this study, we examined (a) the indirect effect between classroom psychosocial stressors (i.e., relational victimization and conflictual relationships with teachers), perceived stress and anxiety symptom development, and (b) whether this indirect effect was stronger for children living in a high threat region than for children living in a lower threat region. Methods: Children participating in the study attended elementary school either in a high threat of armed conflict region (15 s to hide in bomb shelter when alarm sounds, n = 220) or in a lower threat of armed conflict region (60 s to hide in a bomb shelter when alarm sounds, n = 188) in Israel. Children were first assessed on conflictual relationships with teachers and peers, subjectively perceived stress and anxiety in 2017 (T 0; M age = 10.61 years, SD = 0.78; 45% boys) and re-assessed (T 1) 1 year later, in 2018. Results: Perceived stress mediated the association between classroom psychosocial stressors and anxiety development. No moderation by threat-region was found in this indirect effect. However, the association between perceived stress and anxiety development was only significant for children in the high threat region. Conclusion: Our study suggests that threat of war conflict amplifies the association between perceived stress and the development of anxiety symptoms.

When COVID-19 Met Families Living in Armed-Conflict Zones: The Importance of Maternal Trauma and Child Self-Regulation.

The COVID-19 outbreak began in Israel at the end of February 2020, and on March 17, 2020, a general lockdown was announced. Families were instructed to stay at home and schools and non-essential businesses were closed. Aiming to understand how families who were already living in areas of high exposure to armed conflict would be affected by another external stressful condition, data were collected before and after the outbreak. Mothers and children (aged 10-45 months) were recruited from areas with high (n = 40) and low (n = 78) exposure to armed conflict. Mothers reported on their posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and on their child's effortful control tendencies prior to the outbreak. Toward the end of the first lockdown, mothers were interviewed regarding adverse effects of the outbreak on their family. No group differences were found for maternal perceptions of adverse effects of COVID-19. However, a moderation model was revealed, indicating that maternal PTSS as well as child effortful control predicted adverse effects of COVID-19 only in the high-exposure group. Results are discussed considering cumulative stress and risk factors.

The role of parental playfulness as a moderator reducing child behavioural problems among children with intellectual disability in Israel.

BACKGROUND: Playfulness is well known to be vital for child development. However, not much is known regarding parental playfulness. We set out to investigate the role of parental playfulness in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) and typical development (TD) living in Israel. Specifically, we examined 1) differences in parental playfulness between groups and 2) parental playfulness as a moderator in the link between developmental status and behavioural problems (BP). METHOD: One hundred forty-two families living in Israel and their children (48 % with ID) aged 4-7 years participated in the study. Parent-child play interaction was videotaped and coded for parental playfulness. Parents reported on child BP using the CBCL questionnaire. RESULTS: Parents in the ID group showed lower levels of playfulness compared to parents in the TD group. Father's playfulness acted as a moderator in the link between developmental status and child BP. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the unique role of father's playfulness in the developmental status of a child diagnosed with ID.