Poster #98 - Pregnant Women’s Narrative Coherence About the Fathers-to-Be: Associations with Childhood Maltreatment and PTSD Symptoms

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

The quality of childhood experiences with caregivers, including the extent to which children are maltreated, informs internal working models (IWMs) of attachment (Bowlby, 1969). Secure IWMs are characterized by beliefs that attachment figures will be responsive and that oneself is worthy of care (i.e., attachment representations) and by the ability to process thoughts and feelings about attachment figures in a manner that is clear, consistent, emotionally regulated, and complex (i.e., coherence; Sher-Censor & Oppenheim, 2004).

The coherence of the IWM guides social information processing, and subsequently, trust and intimacy within close relationships across the lifespan, including romantic relationships (Roisman et al., 2005). However, while research has investigated how childhood maltreatment affects parents’ coherence about their children (e.g., Hesse & Main, 1999), less is known about how childhood maltreatment affects coherence about romantic partners. Furthermore, existing assessments of coherence in narratives about romantic partners (e.g., Current Relationship Interview; Crowell & Owens, 1998) are time-consuming to administer and score. The current study assessed coherence about romantic partners briefly, with the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS; Magaña et al., 1986), already validated to assess parents’ coherence about children (Sher-Censor & Yates, 2015). It also examined whether childhood maltreatment predicts lower coherence about romantic partners, and whether this effect is mediated by unresolved trauma (i.e., post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, symptoms).

The sample included 79 low-income, ethnically-diverse pregnant women (Mage = 29.47, SDage = 6.64; 42% Latina, 22% Caucasian, 19% African-American, 17% other; 32% Spanish-speaking). Participants completed the FMSS, speaking for five minutes about their baby’s father. Narratives were coded for coherence (Sher-Censor & Yates, 2010), expressed emotion (independently rated), including negativity and warmth (Caspi et al., 2004), and partner support and conflict (Sroufe et al., 2005). Participants also self-reported on partner support quality (Sarason et al., 1983), childhood maltreatment (ACEs questionnaire; CDC, 2016), and PTSD symptoms (PCL-5; Weathers et al., 2013).

Convergent validity of romantic partner coherence was first examined with bivariate correlations (Table 1). Higher coherence was associated with higher warmth and lower negativity, as well as indices of romantic relationship quality, including higher self-reported and FMSS-rated partner support, and lower FMSS-rated partner conflict. Associations among childhood maltreatment, current PTSD symptoms, and coherence were analyzed next (Table 1). Higher levels of childhood maltreatment were marginally associated with lower coherence, and PTSD symptoms fully mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and coherence (Figure 1), b = -0.10, SE = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.22, -0.04].

The FMSS can be used to efficiently assess narrative coherence about romantic partners, and shows convergent validity with independently-rated aspects of expressed emotion and romantic relationship quality. Moreover, elevated PTSD symptoms during pregnancy may explain the link between childhood maltreatment and lower narrative coherence about partners, which converges with evidence that unresolved trauma mediates childhood maltreatment and coherence about offspring (Hesse & Main, 1999). Future work should investigate how coherence about partners portends relationship and parenting difficulties following birth and identify how unresolved trauma symptoms during pregnancy can be ameliorated to improve romantic relationships and deter intergenerational transmission of trauma.

Authors

• Laura M. River, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Miriam L. Castillo, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela J. Narayan, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Efrat Sher-Censor, University of Haifa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alicia F. Lieberman, University of California, San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author