Perceived Social Support, Malevolent Maternal Representations, and Older Adults' Depressed Mood

Abstract

We explored the associations between Malevolent Maternal Representations (ORI; Blatt, Chevron, Quinlan, Schaffer, & Wein, 1992) and levels of Depressed Mood among 147 community dwelling Israelis; older adults (ages 70-83) in good health, functioning well, and not requiring any form of assisted living. Depressed Mood was measured by the CES-D (Radloff, 1977) and the DACL (Lubin, 1965). High Malevolent Maternal Representations were associated with high levels of Depressed Mood; low perceived social support was found to mediate the association between high Malevolent Maternal Representations and high Depressed Mood. Findings suggest the clinical importance of perceptions of available social support for the study of older adults' mental health. Recent studies have explored factors other than chronological aging that might account for an increase in the prevalence of depression as people 728

Systematic empirical investigation of vulnerability to postpartum depression from a psychodynamic perspective: Commentary on issues raised by Blum (2007).

“…In particular, they found that the relationship between pregnant women's internal working models and antenatal attachment to their infant was mediated by the future mother's representations of her own mother. Hence, from a clinical perspective, early attachment as well as current object relations both seem to express related, but not identical, aspects of internal working models (Besser & Priel, 2007; Priel & Besser, 2001) that have an important impact on postpartum adaptation. Congruent with Blum's (2007) assumptions, these psychodynamically inspired studies suggest that mother's own early attachment experiences and her perceptions of her own caregivers influence her attachment to her child and that this association is mediated by the mother's representations of early caring relationships, especially with her own mother (Fonagy, Gergely, & Target, 2007).…”

Parental object representations, attachment to God, and recovery among individuals with psychosis

“…Psychiatric patients have consistently demonstrated problematic conceptual themes, and a lack of cognitive complexity and differentiation in their descriptions of primary objects (Diguer et al, 2004). Punitive object representations have also been specifically linked with higher levels of depression and a decrease in perception of social support (Besser & Priel, 2007). There is also a close link between object representation and attachment style.…”