Stress induced by children born of rape and the parental alliance in the DR Congo

• Published date: 01 December 2024
• Author: Cécilia A. Foussiakda,Juvenal B. Balegamire,Yannick Mugumaarhahama,Claire Gavray,Adelaïde Blavier
• Date: 01 December 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.13080

RESEARCH

Stress induced by children born of rape and the

parental alliance in the DR Congo

Cécilia A. Foussiakda

1,2

| Juvenal B. Balegamire

3

|

Yannick Mugumaarhahama

4

| Claire Gavray

5

| Adelaïde Blavier

1

1

Faculty of Psychology, Logopedics and

Education Sciences, University of Liège, Liège,

Belgium

2

Centre d’Excellence Denis Mukwege,

Université Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu,

Democratic Republic of the Congo

3

Faculty of Social Sciences, Université

Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu, Democratic

Republic of the Congo

4

Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental

Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique,

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

5

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of

Liège, Liège, Belgium

Correspondence Cécilia A. Foussiakda,

Department of Psychology, Faculty of

Psychology, Logopedics and Education

Sciences, University of Liège, Belgium, B32

psycho-trauma, Agora, Place des Orateurs

2, 4000 Liege 1, Belgium.

Email: ceciliaagino@gmail.com

Funding information

PACODEL-Uliège through the Centre

d’Excellence Denis Mukwege of the Université

Evangélique en Afrique

Abstract

Objective: The goal was to understand how children born

of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo induce

parental stress and how parents work together to care for

these children.

Background: Abundant literature is devoted to children

born of rape, but nothing is known about the stress under-

gone by their parents in the care process.

Method: Twenty-four rape survivor couples and 26 control

couples with children aged 6–17 were subjected to Parent-

ing Alliance Inventory (PAI) and Parenting Stress Index

(PSI) tests in the east part of the Democratic Republic of

Congo.

Results:The parental alliance of the rape survivor couples

was comparable to that of the controls. However, for sur-

vivor couples, mothers received more support from their

husbands for girls than for boys. Parental stress was low

among fathers. It was high among mothers of boys and

low among fathers of girls. Finally, it was high among

mothers of boys compared with fathers.

Conclusion: Boys born of rape induce high parental stress

compared with girls born of rape, and mothers experience

more stress than fathers.

Implications: Support programs for families of rape survi-

vors must be gender specific for both parents and children,

and preferably a family-centered approach should be

considered.

KEYWORDS

children born of rape, gender, parental alliance, parental stress, rape

survivor

Received: 18 July 2023 Revised: 23 April 2024 Accepted: 29 June 2024

DOI: 10.1111/fare.13080

© 2024 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2024;73:3343–3356. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 3343