anthony
Founder
How does a parent with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affect their children? What are the long-term effects?
I feel as though there is an implication within that question, something along the lines of, "Am I abusing my child by having PTSD?" The question asked, whether actual or implied, is easy to answer. After reading through the below information samples, simply ask yourself, "Am I abusing my child?"
There is substantial empirical data from diverse trauma types as children and adolescents demonstrating an outcome probability score for adulthood mental health concerns. The common theme is that if you raise your child in an abusive environment or subject them to abuse and trauma, their chances increase significantly for adulthood problems. This is not a guarantee but is an increased risk.
Interpersonal trauma and abuse has far greater impact on a child than larger scale social trauma. Children are extremely resilient to major social trauma such as natural disasters, terrorism or war (Link Removed) provided the child is with their parent/guardian. Separating that emotional buffering from a child has profound effect, increasing their risk for adulthood mental health concerns.
A meta-analysis by Wolfe, et al., cites that
Researchers acknowledge that exposure to domestic violence is a nonspecific risk factor for developmental harm, typifying the process of multi-finality of development. That is, such exposure is part of a group of harm-producing contextual factors (such as child abuse, harsh parenting practices, and other forms of trauma and violence) that interfere with normal development and lead to unpredictable, but generally negative, outcomes in the short and long-term.
In a recent study (Vranceanua, Hobfollb, Johnson, 2007), it was found that Child Multi-type Maltreatment (CMM)--e.g. sexual abuse, physical, emotional, neglect, witnessing family violence, etc.--was directly predictive of decreased social support and increased stress in adulthood, and that increased stress was predictive of adult symptoms of depression, and CMM was directly predictive of PTSD symptoms in adulthood.
The study summates the possible long-term effects quite well:
Individuals who were maltreatment as children have smaller supportive networks, are less satisfied with their supportive networks and perceive their relationships as less supportive. One potential explanation for these effects is that the maltreatment causes distortions in children’s cognitions regarding themselves and others. These distortions become internalized, leading to unhealthy adult relationships. It is also likely that maltreated children have less actual support in adulthood because their potential family support is limited as their parents and siblings may have been perpetrators, or may have suffered maltreatment experiences, and thus may be ineffectual as supporter providers. In addition, often children who were maltreated grew up in dysfunctional family environments, and may have poor scripts for healthy adult relationships.
Another study (Kilpatrick, et al., 2003) reviewed the risk for meeting a diagnosis, measuring demographics (i.e., race and ethnicity variables, gender, age), family factors (i.e., familial alcohol use problems, familial drug use problems) and interpersonal violence (i.e., sexual assault, physical assault, witnessed violence) and outlined from a sample of 4000+ 12-17 year olds that 15.5% of boys and 19.3% of girls met at least one of the three mental health problems.
A study that considered intergenerational psychiatric disorders between mother and daughter (Andrews, Brown, Creasey, 1990) outlined that chronically or recurrently depressed mothers were less involved with their children or to interact with them in a positive way and that children who had been exposed to hostility were more likely to have been disturbed regardless of whether or not they had a parent with a disorder. Results showed that if consideration is restricted to the behaviour of mother, father or stepfather, as many as 60% of the daughters with mothers with chronic or recurrent disorder experienced poor mothering compared with 16% of those without; and 45% experienced poor fathering compared with 4% of those without.
Conclusion
Society is an ever-evolving entity. Step back to the 1960s and children endured far greater familial abuse than they do today. Slowly, society is learning what works, what doesn't. The problem is that it takes 20-40 years to see generational results while making changes in between. If you aren't abusing your child, neglecting them or removing needed emotional support from them during times of distress, then chances are you're doing just fine as a parent, PTSD or not. You don't need PTSD to abuse a child or other mental health issue.
If PTSD is controlling you, you're struggling with anger and other symptoms, then chances are you may be abusing your child to some degree, knowingly or not. With longevity, this increases their risk for any of the above issues later in life, especially if traumatic events compound throughout adolescence and adulthood. Shorter durational issues of a year or less show no conclusive longer term risk to children.
Now ask yourself, "Am I abusing my child?" That will answer your effect upon them as a parent with PTSD.
I feel as though there is an implication within that question, something along the lines of, "Am I abusing my child by having PTSD?" The question asked, whether actual or implied, is easy to answer. After reading through the below information samples, simply ask yourself, "Am I abusing my child?"
There is substantial empirical data from diverse trauma types as children and adolescents demonstrating an outcome probability score for adulthood mental health concerns. The common theme is that if you raise your child in an abusive environment or subject them to abuse and trauma, their chances increase significantly for adulthood problems. This is not a guarantee but is an increased risk.
Interpersonal trauma and abuse has far greater impact on a child than larger scale social trauma. Children are extremely resilient to major social trauma such as natural disasters, terrorism or war (Link Removed) provided the child is with their parent/guardian. Separating that emotional buffering from a child has profound effect, increasing their risk for adulthood mental health concerns.
A meta-analysis by Wolfe, et al., cites that
Researchers acknowledge that exposure to domestic violence is a nonspecific risk factor for developmental harm, typifying the process of multi-finality of development. That is, such exposure is part of a group of harm-producing contextual factors (such as child abuse, harsh parenting practices, and other forms of trauma and violence) that interfere with normal development and lead to unpredictable, but generally negative, outcomes in the short and long-term.
In a recent study (Vranceanua, Hobfollb, Johnson, 2007), it was found that Child Multi-type Maltreatment (CMM)--e.g. sexual abuse, physical, emotional, neglect, witnessing family violence, etc.--was directly predictive of decreased social support and increased stress in adulthood, and that increased stress was predictive of adult symptoms of depression, and CMM was directly predictive of PTSD symptoms in adulthood.
The study summates the possible long-term effects quite well:
Individuals who were maltreatment as children have smaller supportive networks, are less satisfied with their supportive networks and perceive their relationships as less supportive. One potential explanation for these effects is that the maltreatment causes distortions in children’s cognitions regarding themselves and others. These distortions become internalized, leading to unhealthy adult relationships. It is also likely that maltreated children have less actual support in adulthood because their potential family support is limited as their parents and siblings may have been perpetrators, or may have suffered maltreatment experiences, and thus may be ineffectual as supporter providers. In addition, often children who were maltreated grew up in dysfunctional family environments, and may have poor scripts for healthy adult relationships.
Another study (Kilpatrick, et al., 2003) reviewed the risk for meeting a diagnosis, measuring demographics (i.e., race and ethnicity variables, gender, age), family factors (i.e., familial alcohol use problems, familial drug use problems) and interpersonal violence (i.e., sexual assault, physical assault, witnessed violence) and outlined from a sample of 4000+ 12-17 year olds that 15.5% of boys and 19.3% of girls met at least one of the three mental health problems.
A study that considered intergenerational psychiatric disorders between mother and daughter (Andrews, Brown, Creasey, 1990) outlined that chronically or recurrently depressed mothers were less involved with their children or to interact with them in a positive way and that children who had been exposed to hostility were more likely to have been disturbed regardless of whether or not they had a parent with a disorder. Results showed that if consideration is restricted to the behaviour of mother, father or stepfather, as many as 60% of the daughters with mothers with chronic or recurrent disorder experienced poor mothering compared with 16% of those without; and 45% experienced poor fathering compared with 4% of those without.
Conclusion
Society is an ever-evolving entity. Step back to the 1960s and children endured far greater familial abuse than they do today. Slowly, society is learning what works, what doesn't. The problem is that it takes 20-40 years to see generational results while making changes in between. If you aren't abusing your child, neglecting them or removing needed emotional support from them during times of distress, then chances are you're doing just fine as a parent, PTSD or not. You don't need PTSD to abuse a child or other mental health issue.
If PTSD is controlling you, you're struggling with anger and other symptoms, then chances are you may be abusing your child to some degree, knowingly or not. With longevity, this increases their risk for any of the above issues later in life, especially if traumatic events compound throughout adolescence and adulthood. Shorter durational issues of a year or less show no conclusive longer term risk to children.
Now ask yourself, "Am I abusing my child?" That will answer your effect upon them as a parent with PTSD.