Transformational change in parenting practices after child interpersonal trauma: A grounded theory examination of parental response

• Published in: Child abuse & neglect 2018-02, Vol.76, p.117-128
• Main Author: Cummings, Jorden A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abused children; Adults; Blame; Child Abuse; Child abuse & neglect; Child Rearing; Child sexual abuse; Child trauma; Childrearing practices; Children; Children & youth; Discipline; Discontinuous transformation; Dynamic systems; Feedback (Response); Grounded theory; Healing; Parent-child relations; Parenting; Parenting development; Parenting Styles; Parents; Parents & parenting; Post-traumatic growth; Protectiveness; Psychological distress; Psychological trauma; Psychopathology; Qualitative research; Recovery; Social development; Stabilization; Symptoms; Transformation; Trauma; Victims
• ISSN: 0145-2134; 1873-7757
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.10.005

Child interpersonal trauma is associated with a host of negative outcomes, both concurrently and in adulthood. Parental responses following trauma can play an important role in modulating child responses, symptoms, and post-trauma functioning. However, parents themselves are also impacted after their child experiences trauma, reporting distress, psychopathology, concerns about the child’s safety, changes in discipline and protectiveness, and feelings of blame. Most of this previous research, however, suffers from methodological limitations such as focusing on description and correlations, providing static “one shot” assessments of parenting after trauma, and relying mainly on results related to child sexual abuse. This project developed a comprehensive, explanatory theory of the dynamic process by which parenting changes in response to a range of child trauma, using a sample of parents whose children had experienced a range of interpersonal trauma types. Grounded theory analyses revealed a three-phase dynamic model of discontinuous transformation, in which parents experienced destabilization, recalibration, and re-stabilization of parenting practices in response to child trauma. Parents were focused on Protecting and Healing the child victim, often at the expense of their own needs. Most parents reached a phase of posttraumatic growth, labelled Thriving Recovery, but processes that hindered this recovery are also discussed. This study provides the first evidence that dynamic systems of change as well as vicarious posttraumatic growth can apply to parents of child trauma victims. Generating an explanatory theory provides important avenues for future research as well as interventions and services aimed at families who have experienced child trauma.