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Maternal mental representations of the child in an inner-city clinical sample: violence-related posttraumatic stress

Daniel S Schechter1, Tammy Coots, Charles H Zeanah

  • 1Division of Developmental Psychobiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA. dss11@columbia.edu

Attachment & Human Development
|October 8, 2005
PubMed

Parental mental representations of the child have been described in the clinical literature as potentially useful risk-indicators for the intergenerational transmission of violent trauma. This study explored factors associated with the quality and content of maternal mental representations of her child and relationship with her child within an inner-city sample of referred, traumatized mothers. Specifically, it examined factors that have been hypothesized to support versus interfere with maternal self- and mutual-regulation of affect: posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and maternal reflective functioning (RF). More severe PTSD, irrespective of level of RF, was significantly associated with the distorted classification of non-balanced mental representations on the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) within this traumatized sample. Higher Levels of RF, irrespective of PTSD severity, were significantly associated with the balanced classification of maternal mental representations on the WMCI. Level of maternal reflective functioning and severity of PTSD were not significantly correlated in this sample. Clinical implications are discussed.

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