De invloed van ouder-kind interactie op de ontwikkeling van gedragsproblemen bij kinderen van getraumatiseerde vluchtelingen en asielzoekers

Abstract

Objectives: Prior research shows that children of parents with psychiatric disorders have a greater risk for developing psychiatric disorders themselves, than children of parents with no psychiatric disorders. This research focuses on young children of refugees and asylum seekers with multiple trauma’s. The purpose of this research is to determine if the quality of the parent-child interaction is a mechanism that contributes to the greater risk for children of traumatized parents with different cultural backgrounds to developmental problems. Method: 41 refugees and asylum seekers with different cultural backgrounds have participated in this research. It is determined if children of seriously traumatized refugees and asylum seekers (N=18) have more behavioral problems than less traumatized refugees and asylum seekers (N=23). It is also determined if there exists a negative relationship between the quality of the parent-child interaction and behavioral problems of the child. Next it is determined if specific aspects of the parent-child interaction, sensitivity and intrusiveness of the parent, have an influence on the behavioral problems of the child. Results: This research has shown that children of seriously traumatized parents have more internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, especially internalizing behavioral problems, than children of less traumatized parents. No sex differences were found. There is no significant relationship between the quality of the parent-child interaction and behavioral problems of the child. And children of sensitive parents do not significantly differ from children of insensitive parents in internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. Also, children of intrusive parents do not significantly differ from children of nonintrusive parents in externalizing behavioral problems. Conclusions: Based on these results, there can be concluded that children of seriously traumatized parents have more behavioral problems than children of less traumatized parents. The quality of the parent-child interaction is apparently not a factor that contributes to the greater risk for children of traumatized parents to developing behavioral problems. However this research has some methodological limitations. For this reason it is necessary for future research to focus on the influence of the parent-child interaction on developmental problems.