Navigating treatment trajectories for families with young children after domestic violence: A Delphi-study exploring the priorities in terms of trauma-therapy and attachment-based intervention

Background

In families with young children who have experienced domestic violence, both parents and children are at risk to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and there is a risk for disrupted parent-child interactions.

Objective

To identify the factors on which expert-clinicians agree that they should be considered when deciding on the order of trauma therapy for the parent, trauma therapy for the child, and attachment-based intervention.

Participants

and settings: Participants were 16 experienced clinicians, trained in attachment-based intervention for parents and their young children, trauma therapy for adults, and trauma therapy for young children.

Methods

A classic three-round Delphi approach was used. Anonymous online surveys were filled out by the participants. Consensus was defined as agreement among 70% of the participants.

Results

After the third survey round, there were eleven factors for which there was consensus. These included the preference of the parent for one of the three individual therapies, impaired parental mentalizing capacity, insensitive/disrupted parenting, a problematic attachment history between parent and child, a high level of child PTSD symptoms, a high level of parental PTSD symptoms, severe risks for the development of the child, a very young age of the child, and exposure of the child to one or more traumatic events.

Conclusions

Agreement was found on which factors to consider in planning the order of treatments for families who have experienced domestic violence. These factors can provide a starting point from where clinicians can design a treatment plan with a specific family.