Caregiving representations in war conditions: Associations with maternal trauma, mental health, and mother–infant interaction

Risk features in mothers’ caregiving representations remain understudied in dangerous environments where infants most urgently need protective parenting. This pilot study examines the feasibility of a novel coding system for the Parent Development Interview (PDI) interview (ARR, Assessment of Representational Risk) in assessing 50 war‐exposed Palestinian mothers’ caregiving representations. First, we explored the content and structure of risks in the representations. Second, we examined associations between the high‐risk representations, mothers’ pre‐ and postnatal exposure to traumatic war events (TWE), depressive and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and self‐rated emotional availability (EA) with their 1‐year‐old infants. Following three dimensions of high‐risk caregiving representations were identified: self/dyadic dysregulation, unavailable, and fearful. Mothers’ prenatal depressive symptoms were associated with dysregulating and fearful representations, and their postnatal PTSD with fearful representations. TWE were not associated with the high‐risk representations. Moreover, mothers of boys reported more fearful representations, and mothers with financial difficulties reported more unavailable representations. TWE and high‐risk representations were not associated with EA. However, qualitative analysis of the representations indicated risks in the mother–infant relationship. Further, older mothers and mothers with postnatal PTSD reported lower EA. Cultural variance in caregiving representations and the use of self‐report measures among traumatized mothers are discussed.