Psychotraumatological components and dissoanalytic dynamics of sharenting

Nowadays, it has become a common ritual for parents to share photos, videos and personal information about their children and to share their children's developmental processes digitally with their family and close circle. Social media platforms have drastically changed modern parenting practices, and the phenomenon of "sharenting" that emerged as a part of this change may have long-term negative psychological effects on children's psychological development. The aim of our master thesis is to evaluate the relationship between childhood traumas, cumulative traumas, dissociative experiences, and psychiatric symptoms among mothers who share and do not share their children on social media, from the perspective of modern psychotraumatology principles and dissanalysis theory. According to of dissoanalysis theory and modern psychotraumatology principles, dysfunctional family dynamics in relation to sharenting leads to the transformation of individual traumas of human origin into social traumas of human origin and social traumas of human origin into individual traumas of human origin. Our research aims to uncover the psychotraumatic dynamics underlying sharenting behaviors using a dissanalytic school. The study's population consists of mothers living in Istanbul with at least one child aged 0-18 years. The sample comprises 220 mothers (110 who share their children on social media and 110 who do not) living in Istanbul between January 2024 and March 2024. A convenience sampling method, a non-probability sampling technique, was employed to easily and quickly gather data from participants. Data collection involved the use of a Demographic and Psychotraumatology-Based Interview Form developed by the researcher and supervisor, along with several psychometric measurement tools. In our master's thesis, Demographic and Psychotraumatology-Based Interview Form, Sharenting Scale, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Dissociative Experiences Scale, Cumulative Trauma Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory developed by the researcher and supervisors were used as data collection methods. With these psychometric measurement instruments, demographic characteristics, types of social media use, childhood traumas, dissociative experiences, cumulative traumatic experiences and psychiatric symptom levels of the participants are evaluated. The mean total score of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was 44.30, the mean total score of Dissociative Experiences Scale was 25.38, the mean total score of Sharenting Scale was 29.42, the mean total score of Cumulative Trauma Scale was 13.18, and the mean total score of Brief Symptom Inventory was 59.97. As a result of the statistical analyses performed in this study, it was found that the dissociative experiences, childhood traumas, cumulative traumas and psychiatric symptom levels of mothers who shared their children on social media were higher than those who did not. In conclusion, our study provides important and pioneering scientific contributions in understanding the effects of social media use on parents' mental health. It is of primary importance for parents to be aware of the use of social media and to be careful about protecting the rights and privacy of their children.