Stability and change in mother-child reminiscing following intervention: Pandemic and reminiscing and emotion training influences.

Abstract

This longitudinal study aimed to examine the long-term effects of Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET), child maltreatment, and the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal elaboration and sensitive guidance during reminiscing. RET was developed to improve maternal elaborative and emotionally sensitive reminiscing among maltreating mothers of preschool-aged children. Of the original 248 mothers and their preschool-aged children who participated in the trial of RET, which included 165 families with maltreatment who were randomized to receive RET (n = 83) or a case management community standard condition (CS, n = 82), and a group of demographically similar families with no history of child maltreatment, nonmaltreatment comparison (NC, n = 83), 166 families participated in an assessment 5 years postintervention (Time 5; T5) at which children were aged 8-12 years. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic occurred midway through the collection of T5. Results of piecewise growth models including five waves of data indicated that mothers in the RET group on average remained higher in sensitive guidance and elaboration at T5 than mothers in the CS group. Mothers in the CS group on average remained lower in sensitive guidance and elaboration than the NC group at T5. Following intervention-related change between T1 and T2, all three groups demonstrated stability in mothers' trajectories of reminiscing from T2 to T5. The pandemic onset did not significantly affect maternal reminiscing at T5 or change in reminiscing from T2 to T5. The implications of the sustained benefits of RET on maternal reminiscing over two developmental periods are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).