November 7, 2025 – How parents help their children regulate their emotions, i.e., interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) during wartime helps protect children from anxiety and distress—even when parents themselves experience trauma-according to a new study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU).  

The researchers, Dr. Mor Kleynikov and Prof. Dana Lassri from the HU Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, indicate that parents play a central role in their children’s resilience. The study found that even when parents are traumatized, they can still serve as an emotional resource for their children. The way parents help their children regulate emotions, such as encouraging conversations about feelings, legitimizing emotional expression, finding solutions, or promoting distraction, can protect children from the negative effects of war, even when the parents themselves experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

“The study shows that there is something we can do, even under harsh conditions,” the researchers explain. “It is possible to provide parents with practical tools to support their children emotionally and thereby prevent psychological decline in an entire generation.” 

The data was collected beginning a month after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack during the Israel–Hamas war and included 318 Israeli parents of children aged 5–18 (76% women; average age: 40). Most participants reported significant exposure to the war: 

• 32% reported a rocket landing in their area 
• 28% lost a relative 
• 16% were partners of reservists 
• 6% experienced an immediate threat to their lives 

Key Findings 

• 28% of parents met the clinical diagnostic threshold for PTSD. 
• The more severe the parents’ PTSD symptoms, the more likely their children were to experience emotional and behavioral difficulties such as anxiety, aggression, sleep problems, and psychosomatic symptoms. 
• IER significantly reduced the strength of the connection between the more severe the parents’ PTSD symptoms, the more likely the children were to experience emotional and behavioral difficulties. Even among parents with high levels of PTSD symptoms, children of parents who used adaptive emotion regulation strategies reported fewer difficulties. 

The findings emphasize the importance of investing in trauma-informed parenting programs—accessible, evidence-based tools that can make a real difference in children’s well-being, not only during war but also in times of ongoing stress. 

The researchers recommend integrating the study’s findings into educational and therapeutic programs for parents living in conflict zones as part of a trauma-informed approach. Incorporating adaptive interpersonal emotion regulation techniques can provide everyday emotional support and reduce the long-term effects of trauma on children. 

The research paper titled “Parental PTSD and Children’s Well-Being During Wartime: The Role of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation” is now available in the International Journal on Child Maltreatment and can be accessed here.

Researchers: