Talking about feelings: Mother-child emotion dialogues among sexually abused children

Mother-child dialogues about children’s emotional experiences are associated with children’s adaptive coping with stressful situations and mental health. Yet, they have not been examined among mother-child dyads with sexually abused children. The current descriptive study examined the quality of mother-child emotion dialogues, as well as the quality of child and maternal contributions to dialogues, among dyads with sexually abused children (n = 30; 60% female; M age = 8.03), as compared to dyads with non-abused children (n = 30; 60% female; M age = 8.20). Quality of dialogues was assessed using the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue. Also, mothers filled in questionnaires pertaining to their own childhood maltreatment history and psychopathological symptoms. Dyads with abused children were more likely to engage in overwhelming/excessive dialogues and dialogues lacking content, as compared to dyads with non-abused children. Furthermore, mothers of abused children showed lower sensitive guidance and abused children were less cooperative and explorative. Maternal childhood maltreatment and psychopathology were not associated with the quality of emotion dialogues. Our findings suggest that the ability to discuss emotional experiences may be impaired among mother-child dyads with sexually abused children. This may have important implications for the treatment of sexually abused children and their families. Mother-Child Emotion Dialogues 23 2 Child sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with myriad negative shortand long-term mental health outcomes among victims, such as depression and anxiety (e.g., Cutajar et al., 2010; Maniglio, 2009; Trickett, Noll, & Putnam, 2011). A growing body of evidence, however, suggests that a supportive, sensitive, and responsive parent may attenuate and even protect children from the harmful effects of abuse (for reviews, see Elliott & Carnes, 2001; Yancey & Hansen, 2010). A key aspect may be mothers’ ability to support and guide abused children while discussing children’s emotional experiences. However, these mother-child emotion dialogues have been overlooked in CSA research so far. This gap in the literature is surprising, because research consistently shows that high quality mother-child emotion dialogues play an important role in promoting children’s coping abilities and mental health (Fivush, 2007; Fivush & Sales, 2006; Sales & Fivush, 2005). The present descriptive study sought to examine the quality of mother-child emotion dialogues in a sample of mothers and their sexually abused children. Mother-child emotion dialogues Research indicates that mother-child emotion dialogues play a crucial role in children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development (Fivush, Haden, & Reese, 2006; Laible, Murphy, & Augustine, 2013; Laible & Song, 2006). For example, high quality mother-child emotion dialogues are associated with children’s adaptive coping with stressful situations (Fivush & Sales, 2006; Gentzler, Contreras-Grau, Kerns, & Weimer, 2005; Goodvin & Romdall, 2013), and lower levels of emotional difficulties (Fivush, Marin, McWilliams, & Bohanek, 2009; Sales & Fivush, 2005). Furthermore, emotion dialogues have been linked to the quality of mother-child relationships. To illustrate, mother-child dyads characterized by a secure attachment relationship engage more frequently in open (Laible & Thompson, 2000), elaborative (Fivush & Vaseduva, 2002), and coherent, organized, and cooperative dialogues (Hsiao, Koren-Karie, Bailey, & Moran, 2015; Oppenheim, Koren-Karie, & Sagi-Schwartz, 2007) than unsecure dyads. Theoretically, mother-child emotion dialogues are considered to shape children’s developing self-understanding (Fivush, 2007; Fivush, Berlin, Sales, Mennuti-Washburn, & Cassidy, 2003). By discussing emotional experiences with their mothers, children acquire meaning making skills; they learn how to evaluate, interpret, and organize their emotional experiences (Fivush, 2007; Fivush et al., 2003). More specifically, parentchild emotion dialogues are considered to shape children’s emotional self-concept, in terms of how they define themselves as an emotional person, how they express and share emotions with others, and how they cope with and resolve negative emotions (Fivush et al., 2003). From an attachment perspective, high quality emotion dialogues help children shape and maintain internal working models of their mother as a psychological secure base (Koren-Karie, Oppenheim, Haimovich, & Etzion-Carasso, 2003b).