The Importance of Reflective Parenting

Tina Adkins, PhD

University of Texas at Austin

One of the ways to significantly impact the mental health and development of children is to ensure their caregivers have the traits that generate secure attachment in children.  It has been well researched that children who have insecure attachment have poor well-being outcomes as they age, including higher risk of mental health issues, behavior problems, poor relationships and issues with substance abuse.  Additionally, children with insecure attachment often have parents who have an equivalent "insecure attachment" designation on the Adult Attachment Interview.  It has become quite clear that attachment (much like trauma) is intergenerational, transmitted from parent to child. 

Modern attachment research has been trying to discover HOW parents transmit that attachment security to their children. Clinical researchers at the Anna Freud Centre in London have been working on this exact question for a number of years.  They have found some solid evidence that it is a parent's ability to be reflective with their children, their ability to mentalize, which plays a huge factor in transmitting this attachment from parent to child.  Mentalization involves the ability to look inside the mind of another (while simultaneously looking inside your own mind) and understanding behavior in relation to mental states such as thoughts, feelings, desires etc.  It is the skill of being able to see yourself from the outside and your children from the inside, and is an essential component of being a sensitive, therapeutic foster or adoptive parent.

By supporting parents' ability for reflective parenting and mentalization, they are gaining the ability to not only regulate themselves, but also regulate the emotions and behavior of their children.  Foster children, in particular, can significantly benefit from learning to recognize and reflect on their feelings in a more conscious and regulated way.  Teaching foster/adoptive parents about this helps them understand their foster children and their behaviors better, and helps them interact with them in a more sensitive and reflective manner.

Click here for full article.

Recently, a short-term psycho-education intervention for parents was implemented with foster parents in central Texas.  The Family Minds program was found to have a significant positive impact on parents' mentalizing skills as well as lowering parenting stress.  If you are interested in the Family Minds intervention, please contact [email protected].

How do you Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Central Texas?

Beth Gerlach, Ph.D., LCSW

University of Texas School of Social Work

The attention to Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs is growing in the news, but what exactly are ACEs? The CDC-Kaiser ACE study, a retrospective, large-scale study of how adverse childhood experiences are related to adult health outcomes has changed our basic understanding of how the earliest stressful experiences in our lives can shape us into the adults we become later in life. ACEs include childhood abuse and neglect, as well as, household dysfunction like parental substance use, mental illness, domestic violence and parental loss. These experiences have been strongly linked to negative health behaviors such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, lack of physical activity, and even missed work. Obesity, suicide, heart disease, and cancer are also linked to possible risk outcomes. It has also been shown that there is a dose-response relationship between these outcomes and ACEs, meaning the more ACEs a child experiences the more likely they be at risk for negative health outcomes later on in life.

To read full article, click below:

https://txicfw.socialwork.utexas.edu/prevent-adverse-childhood-experiences-aces-central-texas/

The purpose of the Trauma-Informed Organizational Readiness Survey is to assess the continuum of trauma-informed care in the community. Whether your agency is trauma-informed, wants to be trauma-informed, or even if it is outside the mission of the work that is provided, your input is invaluable. 

Please select one person from your organization, agency, or school to complete the survey. 

Please CLICK HERE to complete the survey.

Please complete by Thursday, December 22nd.

The Travis County Collaborative for Children (TCCC) is now accepting applications for partner organizations. The TCCC is a network of partner organizations that have joined forces to significantly improve the outcomes of children in the foster care system in Central Texas.

 

The online application is available at:

http://tinyurl.com/tcccpartnerapp

 

Partner applications will be considered at standing TCCC Steering Committee meetings in December, February, April, June and September. Organizations interested in participating in the 2017 TBRI Practitioner Training in Austin must complete the application by November 15, 2016.