Annals of Psychiatry and Mental Health The Parents of Child Psychiatric Patients (original) (raw)
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The Parents of Child Psychiatric Patients
2016
We hypothesized that parents of child psychiatric patients would themselves show distorted psychological functioning. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the Adult Attachment Interviews (AAI) of 237 Italian parents (128 normative parents with no psychiatric involvement, 30 with a child in psychiatric care, and 79 in psychiatric care themselves). The AAIs were coded for selfand child-protective strategies, psychological trauma and unresolved loss, and signs of depression. The coders of the AAIs were blind to all information about the parents and their children. We found that parents of child psychiatric patients used more extreme strategies than the normative parents; they did not differ in strategy from parents who were psychiatric patients. With regard to trauma and loss, the parents of child patients differed from normative parents, but not adult patients, on trauma and had more unresolved losses than either normative parents or parents who were psychiatric patients. They also ...
Psychotherapy for Parents with Trauma and Attachment Difficulties
Ata: Journal of Psychotherapy Aotearoa New Zealand
This paper describes the arousal of therapist concern regarding the well-being of children in families where there is parental mental illness and domestic violence; a vignette demonstrates how this is understood by the therapist and processed in the therapeutic relationship. The consequent development of a small pilot to provide psycho-education and peer support to caregivers and children with parents who have mental illness in a group setting is described. Reflections are then given, following from the evaluation of this group, on the need for public funded, attachment informed, family focused therapeutic interventions for caregivers with infants, children and young people who are deemed at risk because of insecure or disorganised attachment or behavioural difficulties. Whakarāpopotonga E whakaahua ana tēnei pepa i te whakaohonga ake o te mānukanuka o ngā kaihaumanu e pā ana ki te hauora o ngā tamariki e pāngia ana te matua whāea rānei i te mate hinengaro me te whakarekere...
Parental Bonding and Children’s Psychopathology: A Transgenerational View Point
Children
Literature confirmed parental bonding as one of key factors influencing offspring’s psychopathology; the present study aimed to investigate, with a case-control study, the relationship between parental bonding and psychopathology in an Italian adolescent sample. The clinical sample was composed of 64 adolescents from 12 to 18 years old (Mage 15.00; S.D. 1.70) attending a Neuropsychiatric Unit of Veneto; the non-clinical sample was composed of 61 adolescents, from 13 to 18 years old (Mage 14.80; S.D. 1.32) attending middle and high school in the province of Padua and Pesaro (Italy); their parents (mothers and fathers) were also involved. In the study, self-reported tests were administered (Parental Bonding Instrument, Child Behavior Checklist, Youth Self Report). Our study confirmed a correlation between parental bonding and adolescent psychopathology: dysfunctional parenting styles (characterized by low care and high control) were more frequent among cases in contrast to controls. A...
Attachment and psychopathology in adulthood
1999
proposed a model of development with clearly articulated implications for psychopathology. According to this model, an infant's formation of an attachment to a caregiver is a key developmental task that influences not only the child's representations of self and other, but also strategies for processing attachmentrelated thoughts and feelings. Attachment-related events, such as loss and abuse, lead to modifications in these internal representations and affect a child's strategies for processing thoughts and feelings. Bowlby (1973, 1980) suggested that when children develop negative representations of themselves or others, or when they adopt strategies for processing attachment-related thoughts and feelings that compromise realistic appraisals, they become more vulnerable to psychopathology. In this chapter, we consider how the quality of an infant's attachment to his or her caregiver, subsequent attachment-related experiences, and concurrently assessed states of mind with respect to attachment (Main & Goldwyn, 1984; Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2003) may be related to risk for psychopathology or to psychological resilience in adulthood. ATTACHMENT TO CAREGIVERS Infants develop expectations about their primary caregivers' availability through interactions with those caregivers. According to Bowlby (1969/1982), these expectations then serve as the basis for an infant's working models of self and others. When infants' experiences lead to expectations that caregivers will be responsive to their needs, they develop secure strategies for seeking out their caregivers when distressed or in need, with the expectation that their needs will be met. When infants instead have experiences that lead them to expect caregivers to be rejecting or undependable, they do not expect that caregivers will be available when needed, and they develop alternative, insecure strategies for coping with their distress. Insecure strategies vary primarily along the dimension of attempts to minimize or maximize the expression of attachment needs. When children use minimizing strategies, they defensively turn attention away from their distress and from issues of caregiver availability. They therefore have limited access to their own feelings and develop an unrealistic portrayal of parents' availability. When children use maximizing strategies, they defensively turn their attention to their own distress and to issues of caregiver availability. Because they are so "enmeshed" (Main & Goldwyn, 1984; Main et al., 2003) in issues of caregiver availability, they are unable to appraise accurately whether threats exist and whether caregivers are available. Either of these strategies may leave children at increased risk for psychopathology. Minimizing strategies may predispose a child to externalizing disorders because attention is turned away from the self, without the resolution of negative representations. Maximizing strategies may predispose a child to internalizing disorders because attention is riveted on caregiver availability, and negative representations remain painfully alive.
The impact of maternal psychopathology on child–mother attachment
Archives of Women's Mental Health, 2009
This review aims to consider evidence for the impact of maternal psychopathology on the child's attachment to the mother, and the role of this in mediating the known transmission of developmental and clinical risk to children. The studies reviewed focus on mothers with depression and psychotic disorder. A number of studies (mainly of mothers with depression) demonstrate an association between insecure/disorganised infant attachments and severe maternal psychopathology, whether chronic or current, in the presence of comorbid disorder, maternal insecure or unresolved attachment state of mind, trauma/loss, or low parenting sensitivity. Whether such effects last into middle childhood, however, is unclear. Our understanding of the role of attachment in determining developmental trajectories in this group is at an early stage. Some evidence suggests that attachment may have a role in mediating the intergenerational transmission of internalising and other problems in this group, although the presence of co-occurring contextual risk factors may account for the variability in findings. A multifactorial longitudinal approach is needed to elucidate such factors. However, the current literature highlights which subgroups are likely to be vulnerable and provides an evidence-based rationale for taking an attachment-based approach to intervention in this group.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2000
Both genetic and environmental factors are considered influential in the determination of parenting behavior. -in an extensive transgenerational study of parenting among monozygotic and dizygotic adult twins, their parents, and their children-concluded that it is influenced by attitudes derived from the parent's family of origin, genetic-temperamental characteristics of the parent influencing the provision of parenting, and genetic-temperamental characteristics of the offspring influencing the elicitation and provision of parenting.
Maternal Depression, Adult Attachment, and Children's Emotional Distress
Family Process, 2005
Introduction: Our goal was to evaluate the impact of depressed mothers' marital intimacy and attachment security in romantic relationships on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Method: Forty-six clinically depressed mothers rated attachment security, marital intimacy, and symptoms shown by their children aged 8 to 12. Results: Maternal avoidance of closeness predicted increases in children's internalizing symptoms over a 6-month period. Discussion: Avoidance of closeness in depressed mothers may be implicated in the development of internalizing symptoms in their children, possibly because individuals who are avoidant of closeness are poor caregivers.
The European Research Journal, 2020
Objectives: In this study, it is aimed to determine the relationship between attachment styles of adults with and without depression and child rearing attitudes of their parents. Methods: One hundred eighteen patients who are admitted to outpatient clinic of Department of Psychiatry of the Uludağ University School of Medicine, who are diagnosed with depression according to DSMIV-R and DSM V and put on regular medication, and 130 healthy individuals of similar demographic characteristics without any psychopathologic diagnostic, are included in this study. Within the scope of this research "Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-II", "Child-Rearing Attitudes Scale", "Beck Depression Inventory" and Sociodemographic Information Form were used. Results: It is found that there is a significant difference between the attachment styles of the individuals with and without depression and their parents' attitudes towards child rearing. Maternal and paternal acceptance / interest scores of the patient group were lower than those of the healthy group, and the parents' supervision / control scores were higher. The anxiety and avoidance attachment scores of the married individuals of the patient group are higher than the scores of married individuals of the healthy group. Conclusions: High anxiety and avoidance related to attachment and controlling parental attitudes were found to be risk factors for depression. Keywords: Attachment styles, parent child rearing attitudes, depression ttachment is an instinctive form of behavior that occurs between the mother (or caregiver) and the child in the early stages of life, and that follows a neurobiopsychological development path with the need of the child to be close to the mother [1]. Attachment behaviors, which are not limited to childhood only, continue in adulthood. The first relationship is established with the mother and this relationship is the basis for the relationships that will occur in other periods of life. In this article, the term "parents" will be used instead of "caregivers". Attachment theory has been demonstrated by John Bowlby. Bowlby objected to the understanding of Freud that mother's feeding her baby is the reason of the attachment of the baby to the mother. According to Bowlby, attachment is not a process that is only developed by the elimination of basic need for the nutrients. This basic relationship the child has with his mother will affect his personality and his psychological development. In infants aged 7-15 months, baby's