Communication styles of children of mothers with affective disorders, chronic medical illness, and normal controls: A contextual perspective

Abstract

Research has demonstrated impaired parent-child relationships in families with affective disorders. The present study examines the association of children's interactional style during a direct conflict-solving task to both the mother's interactional style and the child's diagnostic status. The sample includes 63 children, ages 8 to 16, of mothers with affective disorders, chronic medical illness, and normal controls. Children's dominant coping style profile (CS) (autonomous, neutral, or critical) was related to their mother's affective style (AS) (benign or negative). Affective disorder in the child at 6-month followup was associated with a critical CS profile at intake, while the child's nonaffective symptomatology was unrelated to CS. Findings indicate that children's affective disturbance is linked to interpersonal deficits in affectively charged situations. Results suggest that the child's CS is more strongly predicted by maternal AS than by either the child's or the mother's diagnostic status.

Maternal Interaction Style in Affective Disordered, Physically III, and Normal Women

“…A comprehensive assessment of parent-child interactions must include the examination of the contribution of the child to the interactional context. A companion article presents results describing the children's responses during the conflict task in relationship to maternal interaction style and child diagnostic status (Hamilton, Hammen, Minasian, & Jones, 1993). Future work should continue to examine an array of contextual variables, in addition to psychiatric status, that influence dysfunctional family interactions, including a close examination of both chronic and episodic life stressors.…”

Family Interaction Styles of Children with Depressive Disorders, Schizophrenia‐Spectrum Disorders, and Normal Controls

“…Critical statements include benign and harsh criticism, as well as guilt induction. In earlier work, the three components of CS criticism have been explored as a single entity (Hamilton et al, 1993; Strachan et al, 1989). However, in the current study, child guilt induction and harsh criticism were examined separately because of our theoretical interest in whether these dimensions might be particularly characteristic of the depressed children.…”

Depressed parents and family functioning: Interpersonal effects and children's functioning and development.

“…At the same time, the evidence indicates that socioemotional processes in interpersonal relations are important for understanding the links between parental depression and child development (see commentaries by Cummings, 1995a;Hops, 1992Hops, , 1995Kershner & Cohen, 1992;Lyons-Ruth, 1995). Again, in recent studies only, one finds repeated support for the roles of emotionality, emotion regulation, and related socioemotional processes in relations between parental depression, child functioning, and child adjustment (Goodman et al, 1994;Hamilton, Hammen, Minasian, & Jones, 1993;Kershner & Cohen, 1992;Tannenbaum & Forehand, 1994;Tarullo, DeMulder, Martinez, & Radke-Yarrow, 1994;Whiffen & Gotlib, 1989; see conceptualizations and reviews by Cummings & Davies, 1994b;Downey & Coyne, 1990;Lee & Gotlib, 1991;Thompson & Caulkins, 1996).…”