Patients suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develop self-narratives that are ‘too rigid’ or ‘too coherent’. Narrative therapies are developed to make the self-narrative more...Show morePatients suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develop self-narratives that are ‘too rigid’ or ‘too coherent’. Narrative therapies are developed to make the self-narrative more flexible by re-telling it (Jongedijk, 2014). However, these therapies are not as effective as some other treatments for PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2017). This could be explained by using the hyperreflexivity model (Fuchs, 2011) which illustrates how patients suffering from anxiety, mood- and sleep disorders overly reflect on their life. Therefore, retelling the self-narrative during narrative therapy may rather stimulate the rigidity of the self-narrative than make the self-narrative more flexible. Traumatic events and PTSD symptoms, such as flashbacks, are often experienced in a sensorial and ‘wordless’ way. Therefore, the traumatic experience and symptoms could be treated better by using narratives that include conditions of embodiment (Menary, 2008). Literature on embodied and body narratives (Gallagher & Hutto, 2017) are discussed and applied to the standard concept of narrative therapies. It will be concluded that working with a novel concept of a self-narrative that includes conditions of embodiment leads to better results in the narrative treatments of PTSD.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2019-08-19T00:00:00Z
Parents who have experienced childhood maltreatment may face difficulties when faced with the hardships of parenting. A phase that may prove to be especially difficult for parents who have...Show moreParents who have experienced childhood maltreatment may face difficulties when faced with the hardships of parenting. A phase that may prove to be especially difficult for parents who have experienced childhood maltreatment is the adolescent phase of their child, as it is often marked by conflict. In addition, their child’s young-adult phase can become difficult for maltreated parents, because this new period of exploration and reorganization of the emotional ties of the young adult with their parents also marks a period of change. Furthermore, maltreated parents may face additional difficulties are associated with childhood maltreatment, like psychological problems or less adaptive personality traits. This paper focuses on maltreated and non-maltreated parents and the quality of interaction with their adolescent or young adult children. It will be investigated whether child maltreatment experienced by the parent influences the quality of the interactions with their adolescent/young adult children and whether parental psychopathology and personality mediate the effect of experienced maltreatment by the parents on the interaction with their adolescent/young adult children. The sample consisted of 12 non-maltreated parents and 10 maltreated parents, some parents were part of the same family. Multilevel analysis was performed to consider within family nestedness of the data. Ordinary least squares regression was performed when multilevel was not possible. No effects of experienced maltreatment on parental interaction (emotional support and warmth/lack of negative affect) was found. Furthermore, there were no mediating effects of personality nor psychopathology on the association between experienced maltreatment and parental interaction. However, it was found that that childhood maltreatment can be linked to a less agreeable and more introverted disposition in adulthood. Furthermore, more introverted parents were more emotionally supportive. These tentative findings expand the scarce literature on the effect of maltreatment on personality in adulthood and of the influence of personality traits on parental interaction. Gaining more insight in how parenting is affected by personality traits and how the development of specific personality traits are affected by maltreatment might aide in providing more insight in how to assist these maltreated parents and their children.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2017-02-10T00:00:00Z
The current study examined the predictive interrelations between social cognition, executive functioning, social skills, and psychopathology in 4-to-7-year-old typically developing children....Show moreThe current study examined the predictive interrelations between social cognition, executive functioning, social skills, and psychopathology in 4-to-7-year-old typically developing children. Furthermore, the moderating and mediating effects of social skills on the relationships between social cognition, executive functioning and internalizing/externalizing behaviour were examined. The sample consisted of 286 children from regular primary schools in the Netherlands. Both direct and indirect measures of social cognition (Theory of Mind, emotion recognition and social cognitive skills in daily life) and executive functioning (inhibitory control, visual spatial working memory, verbal fluency, planning abilities and EF in daily life) were used in the study. Social skills and psychopathology were measured using parent-rating scales (SSRS and CBCL respectively). Problems in the domain of social cognition and executive functioning, as well as internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems were highly correlated. Also, social skills were highly correlated with psychopathology. Social cognition only predicted internalizing behaviour, whereas executive functioning only appeared to be a unique predictor of externalizing behaviour. Moderation and mediation models demonstrated social skills to be a moderator and partial mediator in the relationship between executive functioning and externalizing behaviour problems. Mediation analyses indicated the relationship between social cognition and externalizing behaviour to be fully mediated by executive functioning. The results of this study suggest that training social skills may be important for children who show deficits in executive functioning and who are at risk for developing externalizing behaviour problems. Furthermore, the mediating role of executive functioning on the relationship between social cognition and externalizing behaviour possibly explains the absence of a moderating/mediating effect of social skills on the relationship between social cognition and externalizing behaviour problems. For more knowledge on precursors of psychopathology, future studies should focus on atypically developing children, should examine the prediction of specific psychiatric disorders, examine the possible differential results from direct and indirect measures and examine the development of the social cognition, executive functions, social skills and psychopathology in middle and late childhood, and during adolescence.Show less
