Prenatal and Childhood Traumatic Factors and Psychosocial Consequences in Individuals with Different Representations of Their Births

Introduction. Today, attachment research focuses on the prenatal period, because it is at this stage that attitudes toward the future child are formed and maintained after birth. The appearance of a child can be a big blow for the mother, which affects the child's later life. It is the experience of interaction with parental figures that underlies the development of the internal picture of the surrounding world and the self. The theoretical basis of the study was the concepts of mother's dreaming of a child, which are tested empirically.

Objective. To analyze the relationship between representation of one's own birth, childhood adverse experiences, psychological and social factors.

Materials and Methods. Respondents are divided into four groups consisting of adult participants according to the representation of their own birth, according to a biographical questionnaire. The group with the representation that the parents wanted a child of the other sex is at the center of the study. The following techniques were used in the study: the International Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ICE/ACE-IQ) adapted by E.A. Katan; the International Trauma Questionnaire (ILO/ITQ) adapted by M.A. Padun et al. to identify symptoms of PTSD, CPSD, and self-disturbance; the Dissociation Scale (SD/DES) adapted by V.A. Agarkov and N.A. Agarkov and N.A. Agarkov.A. Agarkov and N.V. Tarabrina; guilt and shame measurement technique (TOSCA-3) adapted by I.K. Makogon and S.N. Enikopolov; suicidal motivation (SM) diagnostic technique; psychosocial development differential (PDD) to assess the degree of resolution of developmental crises.

Results. Adults with the representation "child of the other sex" were found to have higher levels of shame, feelings of threat, and instrumental and postvital suicidal motivations than others. Participants in this group are less likely than others to be married and have children.

Discussion. The results of the study showed that a factor in the development of the tendency to shame, feelings of threat, and characteristic suicidal motivation are features of the representations of one's own birth. Comparison of groups with "negative" representations showed that psychosocial consequences are not determined by the frequency of childhood adverse experiences. The materials of the study may be useful for psychotherapeutic practice with adults, as well as for prenatal psychology and the field of child development.

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