Maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms, neuroticism, and posttraumatic growth as predictors of children's posttraumatic stress symptoms following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes.

purposeParental mental health plays a critical role in the psychosocial adjustment of children following a major earthquake. Specifically, maternal PTSD symptoms have been identified as significant risk factors for the development of PTSD symptoms in their children. However, the predictive roles of maternal PTSD symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and neuroticism on adolescent PTSD symptoms have been underexplored.

methodsThis study included adolescents aged 12 to 17 years and their mothers, all of whom were admitted to a child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic in Türkiye. Data collection was conducted from June to August 2024, approximately 16 to 18 months after the earthquake, through face-to-face interviews.

resultsMaternal PTSD scores demonstrated significant positive correlations with adolescents’ PTSD scores. Maternal PTSD scores were positively associated with adolescents’ PTSD scores at lower levels of maternal posttraumatic growth, whereas this relationship was not statistically significant at higher levels of maternal posttraumatic growth. Moreover, maternal posttraumatic growth was negatively associated with adolescents’ PTSD scores at lower levels of maternal neuroticism, but this association was not significant at higher levels of neuroticism.

conclusionThe present findings underscore the potential link between maternal and adolescent PTSD symptoms, highlighting the critical need to monitor and address the well-being of both mother–adolescent dyads during the post-earthquake period. Furthermore, fostering posttraumatic growth in parents and recognizing highly neurotic parents as a potential risk group and providing targeted interventions to improve their emotion regulation and coping skills may reduce mental health risks for their children.