Fuel to the fire: The escalating interplay of attachment and maltreatment in the transgenerational transmission of psychopathology in families living in refugee camps

Abstract

Maltreatment by parents can be conceptualized as pathogenic escalations of a disturbed parent–child relationship that have devastating consequences for children's development and mental health. Although parental psychopathology has been shown to be a risk factor both for maltreatment and insecure attachment representations, these factors` joint contribution to child psychopathology has not been investigated. In a sample of Burundian refugee families living in refugee camps in Western Tanzania, the associations between attachment representations, maltreatment, and psychopathology were examined by conducting structured interviews with 226 children aged 7 to 15 and both their parents. Structural equation modeling revealed that children's insecure attachment representations and maltreatment by mothers fully mediated the relation between maternal and child psychopathology [model fit: comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.96; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05]. A direct association between paternal and child psychopathology was observed (model fit: CFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.05). The findings suggest a vicious cycle, wherein an insecure attachment to a mother suffering from psychopathology may be linked to children's risk to be maltreated, which may reinforce insecure representations and perpetuate the pathogenic relational experience. Interventions targeting the attachment relationship and parental mental health may prevent negative child outcomes.

Factors Contributing to Violence Against Children: Insights From a Multi-informant Study Among Family-Triads From Three East-African Refugee Camps

“…All necessary permits to conduct research in Tanzania and the refugee camps had been granted by the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology and the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs. Other aspects of this extensive investigation have been published elsewhere (Scharpf et al, 2019, 2021).…”

Envisioning the future for families running away from war: Challenges and resources of Ukrainian parents in Italy

“…Refugee parents, who are subjected to high levels of stress, may be compromised in their ability to care for their children. Therefore, their children's health must also be implemented and protected by, in turn, promoting the health of their caregivers (Riber, 2017 ; Buchmüller et al, 2018 ; Scharpf et al, 2021 ) and implementing their overall wellbeing, as individuals and as parents, under adversity.…”

A Task-shifting and Family-focused Approach Towards Mental Health Care for Youth Living in Refugee Camps

“…Limitations of the described model predominantly re ect those of the original observational study, which may have affected study ndings, for example the use of instruments and cut-off scores that had not been validated in Burundian (refugee) samples as well as reporter biases such as over-and underreporting of symptoms (Scharpf et al, 2019;Scharpf, Mkinga, Neuner, et al, 2020). Moreover, as the proposed model was developed based on ndings from Burundian refugee families living in Tanzanian refugee camps, its generalizability to other populations and contexts is limited.…”

“…In addition, we conducted a small survey on childrens and parents awareness and use of existing mental health and psychosocial services in the camps as well as their coping resources. We took the following measures in order to increase the appropriateness of the assessment for the camp context and the cultural background of the sample: qualitative evaluations of the study instruments by members of the refugee communities in each camp who were also employed as research assistants, use of translators from the refugee community to increase participantsc omprehension of questions and a pilot assessment in the rst camp (Scharpf et al, 2019;Scharpf, Mkinga, Neuner, et al, 2020).…”