Poster #50 - A Meta-Analysis and a Qualitative-Synthesis of how War-Exposure Affects Parenting and Child Adjustment

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Background:
Effects of war on child adjustment are studied exhaustively. Much less is known about the mechanisms underlying how war influences children’s adjustment. Specifically, in addition to war-related stressors (e.g., exposure to violence and displacement) family functioning may get disrupted. For example, parents might find it difficult to regulate their own emotional states, which can reduce their ability to regulate their children’s emotional states, which could manifest itself in sub-optimal parenting practices. These changes in parenting practices in turn may impact child adjustment.
As a crucial endeavor in increasing our insight into the process through which war exposure impacts parents and child adjustment, we used a mixed-methods approach. Namely, (1) do parenting practices mediate the association between war exposure and child adjustment; and (2) when and why parenting practices might change for war-affected families. This study feeds science by improving our understanding of the parenting practices that help explain the relation between war-exposure and children’s adjustment. It feeds practice by highlighting risk and protective parenting practices that are worthy of focus when working with war-affected families.
Methods:
Using our search terms, we identified 4,147 quantitative and qualitative studies in nine electronic databases (e.g., PsycINFO). A total of 38 quantitative and 10 qualitative studies met inclusion criteria. For the quantitative strand, we used Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling to test which parenting practices mediate the relation between war-exposure and children’s adjustment. For the qualitative strand, we extracted all data related to parenting practices through assigning open codes to study findings (e.g., statements related to parental warmth, permissiveness, etc.), and through connecting key concepts to each other. Using grounded-theory, we synthesized when and why parenting practices might change for war-affected families.
Results:
Quantitative Strand: war-exposure was associated with compromised children’s adjustment; more post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression and anxiety, externalizing behavior, social problems, and less positive outcomes. This association was partly through parents being less warm and more harsh towards their children, but not through parental behavioral control. Qualitative Strand: the impact of war-exposure on parenting depended on the type of traumatic exposure (e.g., bereaved parents became warmer towards their surviving children).
Discussion:
Our quantitative findings showed that war exposure compromised children’s adjustment partly through reduced parental warmth and increased parental harshness, but not parents’ behavioral control. Our qualitative findings nuanced this model. That is, the impact of war exposure on parenting depended on the type of traumatic exposure. Future research should more carefully assess the impact of different traumatic experiences on family functioning and child adjustment. In addition, since most of current publications are cross-sectional, the long-term effects of war-exposure on parenting practices and children adjustment have yet to be examined.

Authors

• Hend M Eltanamly, University of Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Patty Leijten, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Suzanne Jak, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author