The Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ): development and preliminary validation

Abstract

Background: Following a child’s experience of trauma, parental response is thought to play an important role in either facilitating or hindering their psychological adjustment. However, the ability to investigate the role of parenting responses in the post-trauma period has been hampered by a lack of valid and reliable measures. Objectives: The aim of this study was to design, and provide a preliminary validation of, the Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ), a self-report measure of parental appraisals and support for children’s coping, in the aftermath of child trauma. Methods: We administered an initial set of 78 items to 365 parents whose children, aged 2–19 years, had experienced a traumatic event. We conducted principal axis factoring and then assessed the validity of the reduced measure against a standardized general measure of parental overprotection and via the measure’s association with child post-trauma mental health. Results: Factor analysis generated three factors assessing parental maladaptive appraisals: (i) permanent change/damage, (ii) preoccupation with child’s vulnerability, and (iii) self-blame. In addition, five factors were identified that assess parental support for child coping: (i) behavioural avoidance, (ii) cognitive avoidance, (iii) overprotection, (iv) maintaining pre-trauma routines, and (v) approach coping. Good validity was evidenced against the measure of parental overprotection and child post-traumatic stress symptoms. Good test–retest reliability of the measure was also demonstrated. Conclusions: The PTRQ is a valid and reliable self-report assessment of parenting cognitions and coping in the aftermath of child trauma.

A longitudinal investigation of the role of parental responses in predicting children's post‐traumatic distress

“…School‐aged children are likely to be dependent on their parents to determine the extent of their engagement with, versus avoidance of, trauma reminders. Our results add to the growing literature suggesting parents can actively influence how children cope following a traumatic experience (Cobham et al., ; Marsac et al., ; Williamson, Creswell et al., ; Williamson, Hiller et al., ), and suggest that parental involvement in relation to direct exposure to trauma cues may be particularly important. Consistent with such an interpretation, we found tentative support for the possibility that parent promotion of maladaptive coping influences later child PTSS via children's own adoption of maladaptive coping strategies.…”

“…Parents completed the Parental Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ), a self‐report measure of their appraisals relating to the child's trauma and their provision of trauma‐specific support to the child (Williamson, Hiller et al., ). The 30‐item appraisal scale comprises three subscales: (a) permanent change/damage to the child or family, (b) preoccupation with the child's vulnerability, and (c) self‐directed blame, rated on a scale ranging from 0 = don't agree at all to 3 = completely agree .…”

Parental Buffering of Stress in the Time of COVID-19: Family-Level Factors May Moderate the Association Between Pandemic-Related Stress and Youth Symptomatology

“…Highly related to parental emotion socialization, previous studies have identified that parental availability to discuss stressors may mitigate the negative effects of stress-exposure on children’s symptomatology (Carpenter et al, 2017 ; Stallard et al, 2001 ). Parents who provide opportunities for children to engage in discussions about their reactions to stressful events may be able to prevent children’s development of symptomatology by helping children to reframe negative appraisals of stressful events and to co-create a narrative about a stressor (Goodman et al, 1997 ; Williamson et al, 2018 ). Relatedly, parental discussion of stressful events with children has been proposed as one mechanism by which parents may be able to affect the content of children’s narratives about stress exposure (Fivush et al, 2003 ), ultimately buffering the potentially harmful effects of exposure to stress on children’s development of symptomatology (Kilmer and Gil‐Rivas, 2010 ).…”

“…Parental maintenance of family routines and practices following children’s exposure to stress is associated with reduced child symptomatology (Boyce, 1981 ; Foy, 1992 ). More broadly, familial commitment to routines has been found to buffer the psychological effects of exposure to trauma (Greeff & Wentworth, 2009 ) and has therefore been hypothesized to be a key family-level mechanism by which parents can promote children’s resilience following stress exposure (Williamson et al, 2018 ).…”

The Lymphoedema Genitourinary Cancer Questionnaire in urology follow‐up clinics

“…Using objects as tools to enable difficult conversations is a technique common to work with children, 24 adults after trauma 25 and with vulnerable adults. 26 The potential of a co-produced questionnaire to act as a conversation catalyst was the basis for this study and the findings confirmed this premise.…”