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How do Maternal PTSD and Alexithymia Interact to Impact Maternal Behavior?

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Abstract

Maternal interpersonal violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (IPV-PTSD) is known to be associated with impairment of a mother’s capacity to participate in mutual emotion regulation during her child’s first years of life. This study tested the hypothesis that maternal difficulty in identifying feelings in self and other, as an important dimension of the construct of alexithymia, together with maternal IPV-PTSD, would be negatively associated with maternal sensitivity. Maternal sensitivity to child emotional communication is a marker of maternal capacity to engage in mutual regulation of emotion and arousal. Following diagnostic interviews and administration of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, 56 mothers and their toddlers (ages 12–42 months) were filmed during free-play and separation/novelty-exposure. Observed maternal sensitivity was coded via the CARE-Index. Maternal IPV-PTSD severity, difficulty in identifying emotions, and lower socio-economic status were all associated with less maternal sensitivity, and also with more maternal controlling and unresponsive behavior on the CARE-Index.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) “SYNAPSY. The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases” financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (No. 51AU40_125759), the Gertrude von Meissner Foundation, and la Fondation Prim’Enfance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

    Daniel S. Schechter, Francesca Suardi, Aurelia Manini, Maria Isabel Cordero, Ana Sancho Rossignol, Gaëlle Merminod, Dominik A. Moser & Sandra Rusconi Serpa

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

    Daniel S. Schechter, Maria Isabel Cordero & Marianne Gex-Fabry

  3. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Francesca Suardi, Dominik A. Moser & Sandra Rusconi Serpa

  4. Unité de recherche du service de psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent (SPEA), Rue Verte 2, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Daniel S. Schechter

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  1. Daniel S. Schechter
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Correspondence to Daniel S. Schechter.

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Schechter, D.S., Suardi, F., Manini, A. et al. How do Maternal PTSD and Alexithymia Interact to Impact Maternal Behavior?. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 46, 406–417 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-014-0480-4

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