Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T05:55:44.582Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Recollection of Exposure to Poor Maternal Care in Childhood Affect Later Ability to Relate?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Birtchnell
John Birtchnell*
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The study tested Bowlby's hypothesis that experiencing the poor relating of parents in childhood predisposes the individual to poor relating in adult life. Data were drawn from two community samples: a younger sample of 25–34-year-old married women, and an older one of 40–49-year-old women. Data were also drawn from the husbands of the women in the younger sample. It focused on the single childhood variable of the recollection of poor maternal care. To avoid the effect of this on depression or other psychopathology, groups who were depressed and not depressed, or who were at different levels of psychopathology, were examined separately. Recollection of poor early care was associated with poor relating, lower age at marriage, poor-quality marriage and divorce from first marriage. There was a suggestion that the effects of the recollection of poor early care of marital partners summate.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 3 , March 1993 , pp. 335 - 344
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahams, M. J. & Whitlock, F. A. (1969) Childhood experiences and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 883—888.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, W. C. (1964) Consequences of different kinds of parental discipline. In Review of Child Development Research, vol. 1 (eds Hoffman, M. L. & Hoffman, W. L.). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Becker, W. C. & Krug, R. S. (1964) A circumplex model for social behaviour in children. Child Development, 35, 371—396 Google Scholar
Benjamin, L. S. (1974) Structural analysis of social behaviour. Psychological Review, 81, 392—425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1980) Women whose mothers died in childhood: an outcome study. Psychological Medicine, 10, 699—713.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1984) Dependence and its relationship to depression. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 57, 215—225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birtchnell, J. (1985) The relationship between scores on Ryle's Marital Patterns Test and independent ratings of marital quality. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 638—644.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1987) Attachment-detachment, directiveness-receptiveness: a system for classifying interpersonal attitudes and behaviour. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 60, 17—27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birtchnell, J. (1988a) Depression and family relationships: a study of young, married women on a London housing estate. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 758—769.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1988b) Depression and life circumstances. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 23, 240—246.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1991) Negative modes of relating, marital quality and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 648—657.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. & Kennard, J. (1983) What does the Dependency scale of the MMPI really measure? Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39, 532—543.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J., Evans, C. & Kennard, J. (1988a) Life history factors associated with neurotic symptomatology in a rural community sample of 40—49 year old women. Journal of Affective Disorders, 14, 271—285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birtchnell, J., Evans, C. & Kennard, J. (1988b) The total score of the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index: a useful and valid measure of psychoneurotic pathology. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 61, 255—266.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J., Evans, C., Deahl, M., et al (1989) The Depression Screening Instrument (DSI): a device for the detection of depressive disorders in general practice. Journal of Affective Disorders, 16, 269—281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birtchnell, J., Deahl, M. & Falkowski, J. (1991) Further exploration of the relationship between depression and dependence. Journal of Affective Disorders, 22, 221—233.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1977) The making and breaking of affectional bonds, I. Aetiology and psychopathology in the light of attachment theory. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 201—210.Google Scholar
Coleman, R. E. & Miller, A. G. (1975) The relation between depression and marital adjustment in a clinical population: a multitrait-multimethod study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, 647—651.Google Scholar
Crown, S. & Crisp, A. H. (1966) A short clinical diagnostic self-rating scale for psychoneurotic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 917—923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, J. A. & Richman, J. A. (1986) Effects of childhood relationships on the adult's capacity to form social supports. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 851—855.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Steele, H. & Steele, M. (1991) Maternal representations of attachment during pregnancy predict the organisation of infant-mother attachment at one year of age. Child Development, 62, 891—905.Google Scholar
Hazan, C. & Shaver, P. (1987) Romantic love conceptualised as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511—524.Google Scholar
Hickie, I., Wilhelm, K., Parker, G., et al (1990) Perceived dysfunctional intimate relationships: a specific association with the non-melancholic depressive subtype. Journal of Affective Disorders, 19, 99—107.Google Scholar
Hickie, I., Parker, G., Wilhelm, K., et al (1991) Perceived interpersonal risk factors to non-endogenous depression. Psychological Medicine, 21, 399—412.Google Scholar
Horowitz, L. M., Rosenberg, S. E., Baer, B. A., et al (1988) Inventory of interpersonal problems: psychometric properties and clinical applications. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 885—892.Google Scholar
Kennard, J. & Birtchnell, J. (1982) The mental health of early mother separated women. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 65, 388—402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiesler, D. J. (1983) The 1982 Interpersonal Circle: a taxonomy for complementarity in human transactions. Psychological Review, 90, 185—214.Google Scholar
Locke, H. J. & Wallace, K. M. (1959) Short marital adjustment and prediction tests: their reliability and validity. Marriage and Family Living, 21, 251—255.Google Scholar
Maccoby, E. E. & Martin, J. A. (1983) Socialisation in the context of the family: parent-child interaction. In Handbook of Child Psychology, vol. IV (4th edn) (ed. Musson, P. H.). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Main, M., Kaplan, N. & Cassidy, J. (1985) Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: a move to the level of representation. In Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research (eds Bretherton, I. & Waters, E.), Monographs of the Society for the Research in Child Development, Serial No. 209, 50, 66—104.Google Scholar
Navran, L. (1954) A rationally derived MMPI scale to measure dependence. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 18, 192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paddock, J. R. & Nowicki, S. (1986) An examination of the Leary circumplex through the Interpersonal Checklist. Journal of Research in Personality, 20, 107—144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. (1979) Parental characteristics in relation to depressive disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 138—147.Google Scholar
Parker, G., Tupling, H. & Brown, L. B. (1979) A parental bonding instrument. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 52, 1—10.Google Scholar
Parker, G., & Barnett, B. (1988) Perceptions of parenting in childhood and social support in adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 479—482.Google Scholar
Parry, G. & Shapiro, D. (1986) Social support and life events in working class women. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 315—323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perris, C., Jacobson, L., Lindstrom, H., et al (1980) Development of a new inventory for assessing memories of parental rearing behaviour. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 61, 265—274.Google Scholar
Perris, C., Arrindel, W. A., Perris, H., et al (1986) Perceived depriving parental rearing and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 170—175.Google Scholar
Registrar General (1970) Classification of Occupations. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Ryle, A. (1966) A marital patterns test for use in psychiatric research. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 285—293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarason, I. G., Sarason, B. R. & Shearin, E. N. (1986) Social support as an individual difference variable: its stability, origins and relational aspects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 845—855.Google Scholar
Sarason, B. R., Shearin, E. N., Pierce, G. R., et al (1987) Interrelations of social support measures: theoretical and practical implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 813—832.Google Scholar
Schaefer, E. S. (1959) A circumplex model for maternal behaviour. Journal of A bnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 226—235.Google Scholar
Schoen, R. (1975) California divorce rates by age at first marriage and duration of first marriage. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 37, 548—555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott-Heyes, G. (1982) Analysis and revision of Ryle's Marital Patterns Test. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 55, 67—75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strong, S. R., Hills, H. I., Kilmartin, C. T., et al (1988) The dynamic relations among interpersonal behaviours: a test of complementarity and anticomplementarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 798—810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thornes, B. & Collard, J. (1979) Who Divorces? London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Truant, G. S., Herscovitch, J. & Lohrenz, J. G. (1987) The relationship of childhood experience to the quality of marriage. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 32, 87—92.Google Scholar
Waring, E. M., McElrath, D., Mitchell, P., et al (1981) Intimacy and emotional illness in the general population. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 26, 167—172.Google Scholar
Waring, E. M., & Patton, D. (1984) Marital intimacy and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 641—646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilhelm, K. & Parker, G. (1988) The development of a measure of intimate bonds. Psychological Medicine, 18, 225—234.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Mann, S. A., Leff, J. P., et al (1978) The concept of a case in psychiatric population surveys. Psychological Medicine, 8, 203—217.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63—70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.