What About the Parents? Changes in and Correlates of Parents' Discrete Emotional Reactions to their Child's Trauma in Trauma Therapy

Parents experience differentiated emotions after learning of their child's abuse; however, little is known about the effect of trauma therapy on these differentiated reactions and the factors associated with these reactions. This study examined the impact of child trauma therapy on parents' distress, guilt, and shame over the course of treatment and following treatment, the correlates of these emotional reactions before treatment, and the correlates of changes in these reactions. The sample at pre-therapy included 92 trauma-exposed children (68.90% female, Mage = 9.58 years, 38.10% Caucasian) and their parents receiving Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT). Parents rated their distress, guilt, and shame, their functioning (stress-levels, parent support), and their child's functioning (emotion regulation and internalizing/externalizing symptoms) at pre-therapy, post-therapy, and 6-month follow-up. Significant modest-to-large improvements in parent distress, guilt, and shame were found immediately following TF-CBT and from pre-therapy to 6-month follow up. Parent and child functioning, as well as characteristics of the child's abuse, accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in parents' distress, guilt, and shame prior to treatment, with child internalizing symptoms being a consistent correlate. Changes in parent support and child internalizing symptoms were associated with changes in parent distress and shame over the course of TF-CBT, and changes in child externalizing symptoms were associated with changes in parents' shame from pre-therapy to follow-up. Improvements in parents' discrete emotional reactions were observed throughout TF-CBT and months after therapy has ended. The implications of results, as related to the key factors associated with these reactions, are discussed.