Background

Birth parents of children in the statutory child protection system have disproportionally high rates of trauma exposure and mental health problems, however, little is known about the extent to which this population display symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Complex PTSD. This study provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of the PTSD rates in parent samples involved in the child protection services.

Method

Articles were identified by searching PSYCINFO, Medline, CINAHL, and PILOTS. The search included terminology pertaining to parents, trauma, and child protective services and we included all peer-reviewed articles that reported a valid measure of PTSD and child protection service involvement.

Results

Fifteen studies were included in the review with a combined prevalence estimate for PTSD based on 11 studies (n = 4871) was 26.0% (95% CI 20.0–32.0%) for mothers, and estimate based on three studies (n = 2606) was 13.0% (95% CI 7.0%–18.0%) for fathers and 23.0% (95% CI 17.0–29.0) for all parents based on 7848 responses. Four studies that did not report prevalence rates, reported sample mean scores for PTSD that were consistently higher than in general population. Factors associated with parents’ PTSD symptoms included mental health co-morbidities, victimization of physical and sexual violence, and perpetration of child abuse.

Conclusion

There are high rates of PTSD in parents involved in the protective system, thus more targeted efforts are needed to identify and adequately address trauma symptoms of parents as part of child protection interventions.

中文翻译：

---

儿童保护服务中亲生父母的创伤后应激障碍患病率：系统回顾和荟萃分析

背景

在法定儿童保护系统中，儿童的亲生父母遭受创伤和心理健康问题的比例高得不成比例，但是，人们对这一人群表现出创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD) 或复杂 PTSD 症状的程度知之甚少。本研究对参与儿童保护服务的父母样本中的 PTSD 率进行了系统回顾和荟萃分析。

方法

通过搜索 PSYCINFO、Medline、CINAHL 和 PILOTS 来识别文章。搜索包括与父母、创伤和儿童保护服务有关的术语，我们包括所有报告有效衡量 PTSD 和儿童保护服务参与程度的同行评审文章。

结果

审查中纳入了 15 项研究，基于 11 项研究 ( n = 4871) 的母亲的 PTSD 综合患病率估计为 26.0% (95% CI 20.0–32.0%)，基于三项研究 ( n = 2606) 的估计为根据 7848 份回复，父亲为 13.0%（95% CI 7.0%–18.0%），所有父母为 23.0%（95% CI 17.0–29.0）。四项未报告患病率的研究报告了 PTSD 的样本平均分数，该分数始终高于一般人群。与父母的 PTSD 症状相关的因素包括心理健康合并症、身体暴力和性暴力的受害以及虐待儿童的行为。

结论

参与保护系统的父母中 PTSD 的发生率很高，因此需要更有针对性的努力来识别和充分解决父母的创伤症状，作为儿童保护干预措施的一部分。