Stronger Together: Help for refugee families with babies and young children

funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSJ) and the MAHLE Foundation

Principal Investigator IPU

Prof. Tamara Fischmann

 

Principal Investigator (external)

Dr. Korinna Fritzemeyer (Kindergesundheitshaus e.V.)

 

Project Description

The project is aimed at families who were forced to migrate due to war, persecution, or other conflicts and flew to Germany in 2015/16. The project includes weekly mother-child groups, monthly father-child groups, monthly training sessions on development and parenting topics within the group, and weekly psychoanalytic supervision of the group leaders. Preliminary results show that psychoanalytically oriented prevention services for migrants also reach families that are partially traumatized and severely stressed and support the development of their children. The relevance of the project is evident in the context of transgenerational trauma, as previous studies have shown that mothers who migrated due to war and persecution are less sensitive in their interactions with their children than mothers who did not migrate for these reasons. Further research questions within the framework of the formative evaluation include the accessibility and support of refugee men and the questions and expectations that participants in the additional parenting training encounter. Furthermore, the extent to which it is possible to examine the reflective abilities of the participating mothers in exile and whether the PRF-Q is suitable for this purpose will be discussed.

 

The project won the 2021 Community Award of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) in the category “IPA in Violence.”

 

Original language: German

 

Participating Researchers

Janina Mehner-Gentner (Kindergesundheitshaus e.V.)
Lena Schestag (Kindergesundheitshaus e.V.)
Vivantes Klinikum (Neukölln)

 

Duration

Project Start: 01/2019
Project End: 01/2023

 

Publications

  • Schestag, L., Mehner‐Gentner, J., Stein, L., Rossi, H., Fischmann, T., Leuzinger‐Bohleber, M., & Fritzemeyer, K. (2021). Ghosts in the nursery in exile—Supporting parenting in exile during the COVID‐19 pandemic. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 18(2), 197-207.