Growing evidence underscores the need to counteract the mental health risks for children growing up in traumatic situations of political violence. This study examined the concurrent emotional regulation (ER) strategies employed by mothers and their children in meeting this challenge. Following several incidents of rocket attacks, in southern Israel, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 mothers and their children (ages 5–7). Additionally, mothers completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross and John 2003 ). The main theme emerging from the qualitative analyses of the interviews with the children was adherence to the perception of the shelter room in the home as a “safe haven”, supported by constructed knowledge and acquired skills related to physical safety, as well as the sense of emotional availability of their caregivers. The children used imagination, play and physiological regulation modeled by the mothers. The interviews with the mothers revealed their effort to convey a sense of calm and routine, even when these were interrupted. They used self-talk concerning the children’s needs and tried to regulate their own physiological and psychological arousal. Mothers who expressed in the interviews satisfaction with the management of their ER reported significantly higher use of cognitive reappraisal strategies than those expressing dissatisfaction. Mothers help children construct meanings related to stressful events and teach and model evidence-based tactics for ER. Interventions for coping with a toxic reality should involve both psycho-education about children’s needs and address mothers’ own ER strategies, especially the use of cognitive reappraisal.

中文翻译：

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创造“避风港”：暴露于经常性政治暴力的母亲和幼儿所采用的情绪调节策略

越来越多的证据强调需要抵消在政治暴力的创伤性环境中成长的儿童的心理健康风险。这项研究检查了母亲和她们的孩子在应对这一挑战时采用的并发情绪调节 (ER) 策略。在以色列南部发生几起火箭袭击事件后，我们对 30 位母亲和她们的孩子（5-7 岁）进行了半结构化访谈。此外，母亲还完成了情绪调节问卷（Gross and John 2003）。对儿童访谈的定性分析得出的主要主题是坚持将家中的避难室视为“避风港”，并得到与人身安全相关的构建知识和获得的技能以及感知能力的支持。他们的照顾者的情感可用性。孩子们利用母亲模仿的想象力、游戏和生理调节。对母亲的采访表明，她们努力传达平静和例行公事的感觉，即使这些采访被打断了。他们使用关于儿童需求的自言自语，并试图调节自己的生理和心理唤醒。在访谈中对 ER 的管理表示满意的母亲报告说，与表达不满的母亲相比，他们使用认知重新评估策略的比例要高得多。母亲帮助孩子构建与压力事件相关的意义，并为 ER 教授和示范基于证据的策略。应对有毒现实的干预措施应包括关于儿童需求的心理教育和解决母亲自己的 ER 策略，尤其是使用认知重新评估。