Talking About Feelings: Mother-Child Emotion Dialogues Among Sexually Abused Children

Objective: Mother-child dialogues about children’s emotional experiences are associated with children’s adaptive coping with stressful situations and mental health. Despite the importance of these dialogues, they have not... [ view full abstract ]

Objective: Mother-child dialogues about children’s emotional experiences are associated with children’s adaptive coping with stressful situations and mental health. Despite the importance of these dialogues, they have not been examined yet in the context of child sexual abuse. This gap is surprising given that mother-child dialogues may particularly promote children’s recovery from traumatic events. 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.

Method: Participants were 30 mother-child dyads with sexually abused children (60% female; M age = 8.20) and 30 mother-child dyads with non-abused children (60% female; M age = 8.03). Quality of dialogues was assessed using the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue. Mothers reported on their own childhood maltreatment history and psychopathological symptoms. 

Results: 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 did not explain these differences. Our findings suggest that the ability to discuss emotional experiences may be impaired among mother-child dyads with sexually abused children. This has important implications for the treatment of sexually abused children and their families.