Intergenerational Impacts of Child Sexual Abuse on Children’s Adjustment: Maternal Reflective Functioning as a Protective Factor

• In Event: 2-119 - Childhood Adversity and Youth Outcomes: Identifying Intergenerational and Longitudinal Pathways of Risk and Resilience

Integrative Statement

Child sexual abuse (CSA) confers risk for internalizing and externalizing problems in children (Lewis, McElroy, Harlaar, & Runyan, 2016). Supportive parental reactions to the trauma attenuate children’s risk for maladjustment following CSA, but providing support may be more challenging when parents are also survivors of CSA; in these cases, supporting one’s child may entail a re-experiencing of one’s own trauma (van Delft, et al., 2015). Reflective functioning (RF) is an important psychological capacity in promoting sensitive parenting. RF may help to resolve the impact of CSA, allowing victims to better process their own trauma, which may lead to a) better identification of potential risk, resulting in lower exposure of children to CSA, and b) more sensitive parenting in the aftermath of CSA, which could protect children’s psychological adjustment.
The current study investigates three questions: First, we test whether for CSA-exposed mothers, RF regarding their own abuse attenuates risk of children’s CSA exposure. We then investigate whether the interaction between mother and child CSA predicts children’s psychopathology symptoms, such that when mothers and/or children have CSA histories, children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms are higher than when neither individual has experienced abuse. Finally, we consider a three-way interaction between mother CSA, child CSA, and mothers’ global RF predicting children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms, anticipating that when mothers have low RF and no CSA, children with CSA will display higher levels of psychopathology than abused children of high RF mothers.
Children (N =111, Mage=9.53 years; 43 CSA victims) and their mothers (Mage =37.99; 63 CSA victims) participated in this study; mothers reported on children’s internalizing/ externalizing problems and completed the Parent Development Interview. Children completed an interview about their abuse experiences.
Findings provided support for trauma-focused RF as a buffer in the intergenerational transmission of CSA (2(1) =5.11, p =.02; see Figure 1). Mothers’ and children’s CSA histories interacted to predict children’s internalizing (ΔR2=.06, p=.01) and externalizing (ΔR2=.05, p=.02) symptoms, where child CSA/no maternal CSA, no child CSA/maternal CSA, and child CSA/maternal CSA were associated with high levels of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms compared to no child CSA/no maternal CSA. Finally, children’s CSA, mothers’ CSA, and mothers’ global RF interacted to predict children’s externalizing symptoms only (ΔR2 =.05, p=.02; see Figure 2). Among CSA-exposed mothers, child CSA/low or mean maternal RF was associated with higher externalizing symptoms compared to child CSA/high maternal RF. Among non-CSA exposed youth, maternal CSA/low or mean maternal RF was associated with higher externalizing symptoms compared to maternal CSA/high RF. Sexually abused children of mothers with higher RF/no CSA showed attenuated externalizing symptoms compared to children with similar abuse histories but low maternal RF.
RF may be important in predicting children’s risk for CSA when mothers have been abused. Both maternal and child CSA were associated with risk for child psychopathology. RF was associated with greater adjustment in children, though the type of RF varied with maternal CSA history. We will discuss the significance of the findings for our understanding of the prevention and treatment of CSA.

Authors

• Chloe T. Cohen, University of California, Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Corey Pettit, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karin Ensink, University of Laval
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laurel Benjamin, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Yuen, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mackenzie Brandman, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Breana Cervantes, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lina Normandin, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary Target, University College London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Peter Fonagy, University College London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Borelli, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author