BACKGROUND Data on children who grow up with parents adhering to violent extremism is scant. This makes it extremely delicate to inform policies and clinical services to protect such children from potential physical and psychological harm. OBJECTIVE This paper explores the predicament of children whose caretakers were referred to a specialized clinical team in Montreal (Canada) because of concerns about risks or actual involvement in violent extremism processes. METHODS This paper uses a mixed methods concurrent triangulation design. Quantitative data was obtained through a file review (2016-2020). Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a focus group with the team practitioners. RESULTS Clinicians reported the presence of stereotypes in the health and social services network frequently representing religious extremist parents as potentially dangerous or having inappropriate parenting skills while minimizing the perception of risk for parents adhering to political extremism. Children displayed high levels of psychological distress, mainly related to family separation, parental psychopathology, and conflicts of loyalty stemming from familial or social alienation. CONCLUSIONS Training practitioners to be aware of their own personal and institutional bias may help them to understand the predicament of extremist parents' children and implement systemic, trauma and attachment informed interventions.

中文翻译：

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极端主义父母的孩子：专业临床团队的见解。

背景 关于在父母信奉暴力极端主义的情况下长大的儿童的数据很少。这使得向政策和临床服务提供信息以保护此类儿童免受潜在的身心伤害变得极其微妙。目的 本文探讨了一些儿童的困境，这些儿童的看护者因担心暴力极端主义进程的风险或实际参与而被转介至蒙特利尔（加拿大）的专业临床团队。方法本文采用混合方法并发三角剖分设计。定量数据是通过文件审查（2016-2020）获得的。通过半结构化访谈和与团队从业者的焦点小组收集定性数据。结果 临床医生报告说，健康和社会服务网络中存在刻板印象，经常将宗教极端主义父母视为潜在危险或具有不适当的养育技能，同时最大限度地减少父母坚持政治极端主义的风险认知。儿童表现出高度的心理困扰，主要与家庭分离、父母的精神病理学以及因家庭或社会疏远而产生的忠诚冲突有关。结论 培训从业者了解自己的个人和机构偏见可能有助于他们了解极端主义父母子女的困境，并实施系统性、创伤和依恋知情干预措施。