Caregiver insightfulness and young children's violence exposure: testing a relational model of risk and resilience.
This study employed a relational post-traumatic stress frame to explore the co-contribution of young children's exposure to violence and caregiver insightfulness on child behavioral outcomes in a high-risk, non-referred sample of caregivers and preschoolers (n = 64; mean age 3.83 years, SD = .77). Caregiver insightfulness did not have a main effect on child outcomes but did moderate the relation between violence exposure and child behavior across all observed outcomes. Violence-exposed children with non-insightful caregivers demonstrated higher caregiver-rated internalizing and externalizing behaviors and observer-rated negative affect than all other groups. Among children not exposed to violence, insightfulness was not related to children's behavior problems or negative affect, suggesting violence-specific processes. Though cross-sectional, results suggest that the effects of violence and caregiver insightfulness on child outcomes are contingent on one another and that caregiver insightfulness may play a protective role in contexts of violence.
a Department of Psychology , Tulane University , New Orleans , LA , USA.
Sarah A O
SA
Gray
b Jewish Child and Family Services , Boston , MA , USA.
Danielle
D
Forbes
c Department of Psychiatry , University of Connecticut Health Sciences Center , Farmington , CT , USA.
Margaret J
MJ
Briggs-Gowan
d Department of Psychology , University of Massachusetts Boston , Boston , MA , USA.
Alice S
AS
Carter
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D000069581:Exposure to Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D011203:Poverty; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
Insightfulness Assessment; parenting; representation; trauma; violence