Childhood Trauma, Reflective Functioning and Attributions, Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Parenting Competence: What Happens When the Traumatized Child Grows Up and Becomes a Mother?

Previous research documented the relationship between self-efficacy and perceived parenting competence. Further, previous evidence supported the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral consequences of early exposure to trauma. To build on these previously noted relationships, the present study examined the relationships among reflective functioning and attributions, self-efficacy, and perceived parenting competence, with self-efficacy serving as a mediating variable. Specifically, this study sought to focus on the cognitive variables associated with mothers\u27 perceived self-efficacy and parenting competence and how those variables interact differently when early exposure to trauma is present. As part of this study, a national community sample of 126 culturally diverse mothers of young children who were between the ages of 1 1/2- to 5-years rated their own reflective functioning, attributions, self-efficacy, and perceived parenting competence as well as their young children\u27s emotional and behavioral functioning. Correlational analyses showed significant relationships among the variables of interest. Further, mediation analyses indicated that, for the overall sample, mothers\u27 self-efficacy mediated the relationship between both mothers\u27 reflective functioning and attributions and perceived parenting competence. Interestingly, a varying relationship among reflective functioning was found among mothers with a trauma history in comparison to the total sample. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that, for both samples, mothers\u27 reflective functioning, attributions, self-efficacy, and perceived parenting competence collectively predicted young children\u27s emotional and behavioral functioning. Lastly, through an auxiliary hypothesis, a curvilinear relationship was identified between mothers\u27 perceived self-efficacy and parenting competence. Overall, this study contributed information regarding the importance of self-efficacy as a mechanism through which reflective functioning and attributions may potentially be related to perceived parenting competence. Accordingly, these findings suggested that mothers\u27 perceptions about their own abilities may be a potentially important point of intervention

How Is She Managing? Examination of a Woman\u27s Emotion Regulation Strategy in the Relationship Between Anxiety, Depression, and Prenatal Attachment

Pregnancy is often perceived as a time of positivity, joy, and happiness in anticipation of the birth of a child (La Marca-Ghaemmaghami & Ehlert, 2015). At the same time, pregnancy requires adaptation to physiological, social, psychological, and socioeconomic changes (La Marca-Ghaemmaghami & Ehlert, 2015). Such adjustments can evoke emotional distress for expectant women (Guardino & Schetter, 2014). Despite the stressful nature, pregnancy at the same time calls for the expectant mother to be cognizant of her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors for the well-being of the fetus (Lindgren, 2001). Prenatal attachment is a construct based on women\u27s cognitive representations of their fetus that manifests in behaviors that reflect care and commitment (Salisbury, Law, & LaGasse, 2003). How a woman regulates her emotions during pregnancy is largely understudied, further how she regulates in order to engage in behaviors beneficial to her unborn baby are unknown. Some individuals attempt to alter their emotional experience by suppressing their expression, while others reappraise the context to alter their experienced emotion (Gross, 1998. 2003, 2015). Considering the potential impact emotional regulation strategies can have on resulting physiological, behavioral, and experiential systems, the present study sought to evaluate the role of a woman\u27s emotion regulation strategy (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) on the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression, and prenatal attachment. It was expected that reported anxiety and depression would be correlated significantly and negatively with prenatal attachment, maternal emotion regulation strategies would be correlated significantly with prenatal attachment, and women\u27s emotion regulation strategy would moderate the relationships among anxiety, depression, and prenatal attachment. Participants consisted of expectant women in their second-third trimester. Bivariate correlations showed no significant correlations among women\u27s anxiety, depression, and prenatal attachment. Further, no significant correlations were found among women\u27s emotion regulation strategies and prenatal attachment. Significant correlations were found among women\u27s anxiety, depression, and expressive suppression scores. The finding suggests assessment of the use of suppression as a regulation strategy during pregnancy may be of clinical usefulness

I’M Uncomfortable, You’Re Uncomfortable, We’Re Uncomfortable: An Integrative Family Approach To The Treatment Of Tourette’S Disorder And Separation Anxiety Disorder In A Young Child

This case study follows a 6-year old Caucasian Hispanic male who presented with symptoms of Tourette’s disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Given the young age of the child, a critical focus was placed on parental involvement and parental mastery of the treatment components within an attachment-focused conceptualization as the foundation for all treatment delivery. To address all issues presented by the family of this young child, a behavioral treatment was utilized to target symptoms of Tourette’s disorder, and components of cognitive-behavioral therapy were used to address symptoms associated with separation anxiety disorder (in the young child). Further, components of an attachment-based parenting program, Circle of Security–Parenting, were inserted throughout treatment to keep this young child’s parents in tune with their relationship with their young child. Following completion of treatment, this young child displayed significant decreases in his symptoms across both disorders. Further, this young child and his parents demonstrated a mastery of treatment concepts and coping skills. The family reported both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the young child’s overall emotional and behavioral functioning. This study displayed the effectiveness of an integrative family-based approach in the treatment of a young child with symptoms of both Tourette’s disorder and separation anxiety disorder

Parenting In The Context Of Childhood Trauma: Self-Efficacy As A Mediator Between Attributions And Parenting Competence

Given the well documented relationship between childhood trauma and the regulation of stress and emotion, it is likely that childhood trauma also will have important implications for parenting. As a result, the current study aimed to understand the relationships among mothers’ attributions, self-efficacy, and parenting competence within the context of childhood trauma experiences. In particular, mothers’ self-efficacy was examined as a mediator in the relationship between attributions and parenting competence. The sample was divided into low and high trauma subsamples. Mediation analyses indicated that, for mothers in the low childhood trauma subsample, the model was not supported. In contrast, among mothers in the high childhood trauma subsample, the model was supported. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that self-efficacy was a strong unique predictor for young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems in mothers from the low childhood trauma subsample. In contrast, the examined variables worked more collectively in the prediction of young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems for mothers in the high childhood trauma subsample. These findings suggested that mothers’ understanding of their young children’s problems and their own parenting were related differently when the context of childhood trauma experiences was considered and may be important to target in parenting interventions

I’m Uncomfortable, You’re Uncomfortable, We’re Uncomfortable: An Integrative Family Approach to the Treatment of Tourette’s Disorder and Separation Anxiety Disorder in a Young Child

This case study follows a 6-year old Caucasian Hispanic male who presented with symptoms of Tourette’s disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Given the young age of the child, a critical focus was placed on parental involvement and parental mastery of the treatment components within an attachment-focused conceptualization as the foundation for all treatment delivery. To address all issues presented by the family of this young child, a behavioral treatment was utilized to target symptoms of Tourette’s disorder, and components of cognitive-behavioral therapy were used to address symptoms associated with separation anxiety disorder (in the young child). Further, components of an attachment-based parenting program, Circle of Security–Parenting, were inserted throughout treatment to keep this young child’s parents in tune with their relationship with their young child. Following completion of treatment, this young child displayed significant decreases in his symptoms across both disorders. Further, this young child and his parents demonstrated a mastery of treatment concepts and coping skills. The family reported both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the young child’s overall emotional and behavioral functioning. This study displayed the effectiveness of an integrative family-based approach in the treatment of a young child with symptoms of both Tourette’s disorder and separation anxiety disorder

Parenting in the Context of Childhood Trauma: Self-Efficacy as a Mediator between Attributions and Parenting Competence

Given the well documented relationship between childhood trauma and the regulation of stress and emotion, it is likely that childhood trauma also will have important implications for parenting. As a result, the current study aimed to understand the relationships among mothers’ attributions, self-efficacy, and parenting competence within the context of childhood trauma experiences. In particular, mothers’ self-efficacy was examined as a mediator in the relationship between attributions and parenting competence. The sample was divided into low and high trauma subsamples. Mediation analyses indicated that, for mothers in the low childhood trauma subsample, the model was not supported. In contrast, among mothers in the high childhood trauma subsample, the model was supported. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that self-efficacy was a strong unique predictor for young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems in mothers from the low childhood trauma subsample. In contrast, the examined variables worked more collectively in the prediction of young children’s internalizing and externalizing problems for mothers in the high childhood trauma subsample. These findings suggested that mothers’ understanding of their young children’s problems and their own parenting were related differently when the context of childhood trauma experiences was considered and may be important to target in parenting interventions

Loss-of-function in RBBP5 results in a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with microcephaly

Epigenetic dysregulation has been associated with many inherited disorders. RBBP5 (HGNC:9888) encodes a core member of the protein complex that methylates histone 3 lysine-4 (H3K4) and has not been implicated in human disease. We identify five unrelated individuals with de novo heterozygous variants in RBBP5. Three nonsense/frameshift and two missense variants were identified in probands with neurodevelopmental symptoms including global developmental delay, intellectual disability, microcephaly, and short stature. Here, we investigate the pathogenicity of the variants through protein structural analysis and transgenic Drosophila models. Both missense p.(T232I) and p.(E296D) variants affect evolutionarily conserved amino acids located at the interface between RBBP5 and the nucleosome. In Drosophila, overexpression analysis identifies partial loss-of-function mechanisms when the variants are expressed using the fly Rbbp5 or human RBBP5 cDNA. Loss of Rbbp5 leads to a reduction in brain size. The human reference or variant transgenes fail to rescue this loss and expression of either missense variant in an Rbbp5 null background results in a less severe microcephaly phenotype than the human reference, indicating both missense variants are partial loss-of-function alleles. Haploinsufficiency of RBBP5 observed through de novo null and hypomorphic loss-of-function variants is associated with a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder. Huang et al. report the first functional validation of candidate pathological variants in RBBP5. We present three truncating p.(K244Nfs*6), p.(W254*), p.(R307*) and two missense p.(T232I), p.(E296D) variants found de novo in affected individuals sharing phenotypes including microcephaly and short stature. RBBP5 is a core member of the COMPASS complex responsible for H3 lysine 4 methylation to activate developmental target genes (COMPASS complex adapted from Namitz et al., 2023). Differentiation of neural stem cells in humans and neuroblasts in Drosophila is conserved allowing for the study of neural development in the fly model organism (neural stem cell/neuroblast differentiation diagram adapted from Kim and Hirth, 2009). We used overexpression and rescue experiments to characterize the missense variants in the fly. Neural progenitor populations were evaluated in the larval brain and tissue specific phenotypes were quantified using adult eye and wing morphology studies. We identify that the truncating and missense variants are loss-of-function alleles. As additional patients are identified, the full phenotypic spectrum of RBBP5-related disorders will be elucidated. Created with Biorender.com. [Display omitted