Parenting in Times of War: A Meta-Analysis and Qualitative Synthesis of War Exposure, Parenting, and Child Adjustment

Abstract

This mixed methods systematic review and meta-analysis sheds more light on the role parenting practices play in children's adjustment after war exposure. Specifically, we quantitatively examined whether parenting behavior explained some of the wellknown associations between war exposure and children's adjustment. In addition, we meta-synthesized qualitative evidence answering when and why parenting practices might change for war-affected families. We searched nine electronic databases and contacted experts in the field for relevant studies published until March 2018, identifying 4,147 unique publications that were further screened by title and abstract, resulting in 158 publications being fully screened. By running a meta-analytic structural equation model with 38 quantitative studies (N ¼ 54,372, M age ¼ 12.00, SD age ¼ 3.54), we found that more war-exposed parents showed less warmth and more harshness toward their children, which partly mediated the association between war exposure and child adjustment, that is, post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression and anxiety, social problems, externalizing behavior, and lower positive outcomes (e.g., quality of life). War exposure was not associated with parents' exercise of behavioral control. By meta-synthesizing 10 qualitative studies (N ¼ 1,042; age range ¼ 0À18), we found that the nature of war-related trauma affected parenting differently. That is, parents showed harshness, hostility, inconsistency, and less warmth in highly dangerous settings and more warmth and overprotection when only living under threat. We conclude that it is both how much and what families have seen that shapes parenting in times of war.

Distance learning, parent-child interactions, and affective well-being of parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic: A daily diary study

“…Notably, the within-person effects of homeschooling and parental involvement therein on negative parent-child interactions and affective well-being emerged over and above the effects of general daily stressor occurrence, which significantly predicted more negative parent-child interactions, higher parental and child negative affect, and lower parental and child positive affect as well. Finding parental stress to be related to their own and their children's affective well-being on a daily basis supports previous work emphasizing the interrelations among parental and child functioning (Schermerhorn et al, 2010) and extends previous between-person research showing that parents' distress during crises spills over to their children (Chemtob et al, 2010;Eltanamly et al, 2019;Romero et al, 2020). On the between-person level, however, homeschooling per se was not associated with any of the outcomes, while stressor occurrence exhibited the same significant associations as on the within-person level.…”

“…It has been emphasized that child and adult functioning and development are generally intertwined in families (Schermerhorn et al, 2010). In the face of community traumata, previous research has shown that parents' perceived distress is interrelated with their children's distress, well-being, and adjustment (e.g., Chemtob et al, 2010; see Eltanamly et al, 2019, for a meta-analysis). For instance, parental posttraumatic stress following a major earthquake was significantly related to children's distress (Juth et al, 2015).…”

Strengthening parenting in conflict-affected communities: development of the Caregiver Support Intervention

“…As parental stress and distress increase, parents may become more likely to engage in harsh parenting, and less likely to engage in the kinds of supportive, nurturing interactions that contribute to healthy child development (Biglan et al, 2012;Jackson and Choi, 2018), and that might buffer children from the chaos and deprivation of conflict and refugee settings (Masten and Narayan, 2012;Betancourt et al, 2013). 1 In a recent systematic review and meta-analysis, Eltanamly et al found that parental stress and distress partially mediate the impact of armed conflict on children via two primary pathways: a reduction in parental warmth and an increase in harsh parenting (Eltanamly et al, 2019). In their study of Syrian parents in Lebanon, for example, Sim et al (2018) found that parental stress and distress stemming from the hardships of displacement were linked to a greater use of harsh discipline and a reduction in parental supervision and positive parent-child interactions.…”

Protocol for a Randomized Control Trial of the Caregiver Support Intervention with Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

“…Highly stressed and anxious caregivers are significantly more likely to have children with insecure attachments, which pose a risk for subsequent difficulties in children's self-regulation, interpersonal relationships, and future academic achievement (12)(13)(14)(15). The linkages among parental stress, compromised parenting, and child mental health and psychosocial difficulties have been welldocumented in studies of diverse refugee communities (6,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), including Syrian refugees in Lebanon (17,21), the target population in the present study.…”