Study on a group of inhibited children from a deprived urban area

Abstract

The authors describe a group of inhibited children from an impoverished milieu, randomly selected from four schools. Televised evaluations were used to examine the children, and the parents were evaluated by the social workers. Among twenty evaluated children, three were found to be normal and the rest were inhibited at minus 2 degrees. Almost half these children showed depressive traits. The families lived in deprivation. In half the families there was alcoholism and the fathers were absent. The parents saw themselves as excessively strict but the children, for the most part, were not able to verbalize how they perceived their parents. In spite of the deprivation of these families the parents still aspire to middle-class values for their children and push them in this direction, and this increases their inhibition. An attempt is now being made to stimulate them: eight have been invited to regular free painting sessions, and the others will form a control group for a further study in which the efficacy of this technique will be measured.