Early Relationships Research Articles

The Comparison Between Personality Characteristics and Family Relations Of The Subjects With Neurotic Level Of Personality Organization With Control Group

Studies to explain neurotic personality organization is no more. Studies emphasize the early family relationships are important in formation of this structure. Our study aims to assess personality traits and family relations of individuals with neurotic personality organization. 31 patients assessed in neurotic personality organization according to SCID-I and SCID-II followed by social psychiatry unit (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders), 31 control groups not taking diagnostic in the same tests were included in study. Socio-demographic data form was filled by interviewer, Beck Depression Inventory, MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Family Assessment Scale, Sheehan Disability Scale by the participants. Control group was created from, of volunteers, subjects not taking any psychiatric diagnosis. Compared to neurotic patient group with control group; Shehan Disability Scale for Beck Depression Inventory scores; Family Assessment Scale for social life and family environment, business subscale and household responsibilities, for State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; hypochondria, depression, hysteria, and social introversion subscales for problem solving and behavior control subscale scores between groups and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Neurotic group was taking significantly diagnosis compared to control group for depressive disorder, anxiety disorders and avoidant personality disorder. Considered that avoidant personality structuring of neurotic individuals are at the forefront, the secondary anxiety and depressive symptoms progress. Said all these processes impair domestic problem-solving, behavior control skills of these individuals. Supports this process that the average score of neurotic patients are higher than control group for hypochondria, depression, hysteria, and social introversion subscales as results of MMPI.

Attachment and separation–individuation: two ways of looking at the mother–infant relationship

The early development of two sisters was observed in a naturalistic setting as part of the research contributing to an understanding of the separation–individuation process. Forty years later, the women were administered the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI). The results of the AAI, which were unexpected and surprising, are used in this paper to add to the understanding of the earlier observations, and to demonstrate how both theories together can be used to enrich our understanding of the earliest relationship.

Viewing the Absence of Sex from Couple Relationships Through the "Core Complex" Lens

This paper attempts to understand the absence of sex in intimate couple relationships from a pre-oedipal perspective, using Glasser's (1979) concept of the "core complex". It draws on two clinical cases, one where the couple named lack of sex as the principal problem during their assessment interview, and another where the partners' sex was absent from their long-standing relationship once therapy was well underway. These two clinical cases are thought about using a contemporary Freudian perspective, where the anxieties that arise in the earliest relationship between infant and mother are believed to contribute to the claustro-agoraphobic anxieties in adult relating. Additionally, the unconscious dynamics that may be operating in couple relationships in which sex is absent is explored in the context of the relationship where partners seem intently caught up in the struggle of balancing their need for intimacy alongside preserving their sense of self.

For Tranquility and Order: Family and Community on Mexico’s Northern Frontier, 1800–1850

Laura Shelton’s monograph is a welcome addition to the rapidly growing literature on gender and nineteenth-century liberalism in Latin America. Her study focuses on early nineteenth-century Sonora, a frontier state in northwestern Mexico, in the midst of violence created by indigenous uprisings. Shelton seeks to trace how the transition from colony to nation-state affected family and gender relations. She bases her study on roughly seven hundred civil and criminal records, as well as census data, military reports, and travelers’ accounts.Shelton finds that gender was key to understanding how Sonorans conceived of themselves and their citizenship during this period. As she asserts, “In early republican Sonora, family relationships, gender roles and sexual mores denoted ‘civilization’ in the face of ‘savage’ social, moral and political disorder” (p. 3). That is, as armed resistance and ethnic violence increased, Sonorans believed that political order could be established by order through gender roles. Men were to be patriarchs and women sexually chaste, morally upstanding, and submissive to their fathers and husbands. The performance of these gender roles was what allowed Sonorans to call themselves civilized, and the lack of patriarchal gender relations among the Apache and Yaqui Indians coded them as barbaric. Cases brought before the courts demonstrate the importance placed on these gender ideals during this period. For Sonorans, the maintenance of gender hierarchies was part of the process of transitioning from colony to republic.Shelton’s work challenges some of the previous understandings of frontier Mexico. This area has often been associated with a weak state, but Shelton finds this assertion to be overstated. She argues that the court system in particular was a trusted venue, where men and women from all socioeconomic groups came to seek justice. If the legal system were not well established due to a weak state, then many of these cases simply would not have been brought to the courts. Shelton states that the judicial system did have the ability to “enforce the law, shape actual conduct, and create a civic culture in Sonora under difficult circumstances” (p. 19).Many continuities existed between colonial practice and liberal economic expansion, especially in terms of labor practices. While colonial elites could exploit labor based on caste status, in theory the republic abolished such distinctions. In contrast, Shelton shows that Sonorans moved to enforce class distinctions and coded members of certain classes as dependent on their patrons. Their dependence allowed for their labor to be exploited, particularly the labor of domestic servants, who became doubly dependent based on class and gender.This study also contributes to our understanding of honor under nineteenth-century liberalism. In Sonora, honor was not defined by bloodlines, but rather by “buenas costumbres,” or acting in an honorable way. Thus, upholding gendered standards allowed men and women to be honorable, and this honor in turn allowed them to define themselves as civilized. Shelton’s book dovetails nicely with other recent works that focus on gender, honor, and citizenship under liberal rule in Mexico.The strength of Shelton’s research is that it allows her to show how ordinary Sonorans understood republicanism, the legal system, and their rights as citizens. Her records show not just how elite men constructed honor, but how peasants, members of the working classes, artisans, and women of all classes used the courts to protect their rights and their own conceptions of honor.Shelton’s engagingly written book is a solid contribution to our understandings of life on the Mexican frontier. Shelton could have strengthened her work with more context of the wars and indigenous uprisings that set the backdrop of her argument. She asserts that the violence of the area is what drove these particular gendered norms, and the argument is believable. It would have been helpful for students, for example, to have that information woven into the analysis. Nevertheless, this important study provides a necessary explanation of the way gender functions in times of violence and upheaval to cement social and economic structures.

Theoretical Perspectives of Male Sexual Abuse: Conceptualization of a Case Study

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the traumatic impact that sexual abuse can have on a young male's development by addressing mediating dispositions that can render a child vulnerable to the effects of sexual abuse. Consideration is given to three different theoretical perspectives that are not exclusive to male victims but shed light on the impact that sexual abuse can have on the development of a young boy. These perspectives include early family relationships and attachment theory, developmental psychopathology, and trauma theory. These theoretical lenses provide a conceptual understanding into why some victims are vulnerable to the effects of sexual abuse. Each theoretical view is applied to a case study of an adolescent male with a history of early trauma and sexual abuse. Clinical implications are discussed.

Psychological issues in pediatric obesity

Pediatric obesity is a major health problem and has reached epidemiological proportions today. The present paper reviews major psychological issues in pediatric obesity from a developmental perspective. Research and literature has shown that a number of developmental, family, maternal and child factors are responsible in the genesis of pediatric obesity. Family food habits, early developmental lifestyle of the child, parenting, early family relationships and harmony all contribute towards the growth and development of a child. The present review focuses on the role of developmental psychological factors in the pathogenesis of pediatric obesity and highlights the developmental factors that must be kept in mind when evaluating a case of pediatric obesity.

From Dyad to Dialogue

The centrality of language for a Freudian theory of mind and treatment has not been retained by most post-Freudian theorists. American writers have turned to academic developmental research on mother-child interactions to depict the preoedipal period as preverbal, presymbolic, nonconscious. This view presents the early relationship as developing in linear stages in which visual observational data (e.g., contingent behavior action patterns between two persons) are privileged over aural-oral data of communicational exchanges. An alternative view is presented that redefines the earliest relationship in terms of communicational exchanges, mediation, and dialogue. The claim is that understanding the nature of mediated communication keeps language central to psychoanalysis and reestablishes an intrapsychic dimension in the concept of relationship that is lost when relationship is reduced to behavioral patterns.

Quality of early family relationships and the timing and tempo of puberty: effects depend on biological sensitivity to context.

Guided by evolutionary-developmental theories of biological sensitivity to context and reproductive development, the current research examined the interactive effects of early family environments and psychobiologic reactivity to stress on the subsequent timing and tempo of puberty. As predicted by the theory, among children displaying heightened biological sensitivity to context (i.e., higher stress reactivity), higher quality parent-child relationships forecast slower initial pubertal tempo and later pubertal timing, whereas lower quality parent-child relationships forecast the opposite pattern. No such effects emerged among less context-sensitive children. Whereas sympathetic nervous system reactivity moderated the effects of parent-child relationships on both breast/genital and pubic hair development, adrenocortical activation only moderated the effect on pubic hair development. The current results build on previous research documenting what family contexts predict variation in pubertal timing by demonstrating for whom those contexts matter. In addition, the authors advance a new methodological approach for assessing pubertal tempo using piecewise growth curve analysis.

Reported early family environment covaries with menarcheal age as a function of polymorphic variation in estrogen receptor-α

Age at menarche, a sentinel index of pubertal maturation, was examined in relation to early family relationships (conflict, cohesion) and polymorphic variation in the gene encoding estrogen receptor-α (ESR1) in a midlife sample of 455 European American women. Consistent with prior literature, women who reported being raised in families characterized by close interpersonal relationships and little conflict tended to reach menarche at a later age than participants reared in families lacking cohesion and prone to discord. Moreover, this association was moderated by ESR1 variation, such that quality of the family environment covaried positively with menarcheal age among participants homozygous for minor alleles of the two ESR1 polymorphisms studied here (rs9304799, rs2234693), but not among women of other ESR1 genotypes. In addition, (a) family relationship variables were unrelated to ESR1 variation, and (b) genotype-dependent effects of childhood environment on age at menarche could not be accounted for by personality traits elsewhere shown to explain heritable variation in reported family conflict and cohesion. These findings are consistent with theories of differential susceptibility to environmental influence, as well as the more specific hypothesis (by Belsky) that girls differ genetically in their sensitivity to rearing effects on pubertal maturation.

Psychological and psychophysiological considerations regarding the maternal-fetal relationship.

The earliest relationship does not begin with birth. Pregnant women construct mental representations of the fetus, and feelings of affiliation or "maternal-fetal attachment" generally increase over the course of gestation. While there is a fairly substantial literature on the development and moderation of psychological features of the maternal-fetal relationship, including the role of ultrasound imaging, relatively little is known about the manner in which maternal psychological functioning influences the fetus. Dispositional levels of maternal stress and anxiety are modestly associated with aspects of fetal heart rate and motor activity. Both induced maternal arousal and relaxation generate fairly immediate alterations to fetal neurobehaviors; the most consistently observed fetal response to changes in maternal psychological state involves suppression of motor activity. These effects may be mediated, in part, by an orienting response of the fetus to changes in the intrauterine environment. Conversely, there is evidence that fetal behaviors elicit maternal physiological responses. Integration of this finding into a more dynamic model of the maternal-fetal dyad, and implications for the postnatal relationship are discussed. Research on the period before birth affords tremendous opportunity for developmental scientists to advance understanding of the origins of human attachment.

Developmental origins of early antisocial behavior.

Early antisocial behavior has its origins in childhood behavior problems, particularly those characterized by aggressive and destructive behavior. Deficits in self-regulation across multiple domains of functioning, from the physiological to the cognitive, are associated with early behavior problems, and may place children at greater risk for the development of later antisocial behavior. Data are presented from a longitudinal study of early self-regulation and behavior problems, the RIGHT Track Research Project, demonstrating that children at greatest risk for early and persistent problem behavior display patterns of physiological and emotional regulation deficits early in life. Parenting behavior and functioning have also been examined as predictors of trajectories of early problem behavior, and some data support the interaction of parenting and self-regulation as significant predictors of patterns of problematic behavior and ongoing problems with the regulation of affect. Peer relationships also affect and are affected by early self-regulation skills, and both may play a role in academic performance and subsequent school success. These data provide evidence that the social contexts of early family and peer relationships are important moderators of the more proximal mechanism of self-regulation, and both types of processes, social and biobehavioral, are likely implicated in early antisocial tendencies. Implications of these findings on self-regulation and early behavior problems are discussed in terms of future research and treatment approaches.

Negative relationships in the family-of-origin predict attenuated cortisol in emerging adults

Negative childhood family environments have been associated with stress-related physical and psychological health consequences across the lifespan. The present study examined the relation between adverse relationships in the family of origin and physiological stress response, as measured by salivary cortisol, in emerging adulthood. Seventy-six university students (age range = 18–22) selected from intact married families-of-origin characterized by either negative ( n = 39) or positive ( n = 37) relationship quality engaged in a challenging role play task. Results from multilevel models indicated that those from negative families exhibited significantly lower salivary cortisol across the task than those from positive families. This relation did not change in strength or direction after controlling for experiences with abuse or recent anxiety or depressive symptoms. These findings suggest the significance of early family relationships on the long-term activity of the HPA axis.

The Baby as Subject: The Hospitalised Infant and the Family Therapist

This article is concerned with the experience of infants who endure long hospitalisations. It explores the concept of the baby as subject; that is, infants as active, psychic participants in their earliest relationships. It explores therapeutic possibilities with hospitalised infants from an infant mental health perspective. It advocates for family therapists to equip themselves for infant—parent therapeutic work.

Mothers' and Fathers' Views of the Interdependence of Their Relationships With Their Infant

This study examined the interrelatedness of mother-infant and father-infant relationships as they develop over the first 4 months postpartum as well as the dynamics used by the couple to balance these relationships. First-time mother-father couples (n = 18) were interviewed separately at 1, 6, and 16 weeks postpartum using the Parent-Infant Relationship Interview. The data were analyzed using in-depth qualitative strategies. The parents' core themes of their early family relationships ranged from an undifferentiated unit at 1 week, to being a highly disorganized unit at 6 weeks, to a more integrated unit at 16 weeks. These results suggest that one should be thinking of early family relationships and parenting in terms of "messy processes" out of which new ways of being together are created. This disorganization plays a fundamental role in the establishment of early family relationships and warrants further empirical and clinical attention.

Childhood Familial Experiences as Antecedents of Adult Membership in New Religious Movements: A Literature Review

Is it possible to identify specific familial patterns as antecedents of adult membership in new religious movements? Can the choice of an NRM be predicted by the childhood experiences of individuals joining such movements? This international literature review seeks to answer these questions, investigating the assumption that early family experiences affect adults' decisions to join NRMs. It includes empirical studies that have been written in English, German and French since 1970, and gives an overview of findings on childhood family structures, including parents and siblings, as well as early family relationships and atmospheres. On the whole, the studies from different countries and decades support the hypothesis that early family experiences have an impact on adult membership in NRMs. However, it seems that individuals with different early experiences are attracted to different kinds of groups. Whereas many studies found problematic family backgrounds and absent fathers in converts' biographies, suggesting a compensatory function of membership, some point to a continuation or restoration of early experiences. More interdisciplinary comparative research on NRMs is needed to gain a better understanding of the psychodynamic processes and psychological offers of different groups.

The role of the family in authority systems: A cross-cultural application of stimulus-generalization theory

Psychoanalytically oriented social scientists have proposed a “projective” view of the political system in which early family relationships serve as models for adult political behavior. Anthropological field reports indicate that the extension of the family idiom to political relationships is widespread in non-Western cultures, particularly those with stateless political systems. Here the author proposes to show the relevance of social-psychological theories to political anthropology, indicating that cross-cultural testing of the derived hypotheses is feasible using available ethnographic evidence.

Cultural influences on early family relationships.

Cultural influences on early family relationships.

Domestic violence, single parenthood, and fathers in the setting of teenage pregnancy

Purpose To explore the relative impact of demographic and early interpersonal family relationships as associations of fatherhood where the mother is a teenager, compared to where the mother is over 20 years of age. Method A prospective cross-sectional cohort study was undertaken. Institutional ethics committee approval and informed consent were obtained. Data were analyzed from interviews with consecutive males about to become fathers where the mother was aged less than 20 years (teenage) and compared to information from males about to become fathers where the mother was aged 20 years or more (control). Subjects were interviewed to obtain information covering their early life experiences, demographic information, drug use, opinion of the pregnancy, and future planning. Results In multivariate analysis, and after controlling for family income and education, the following factors had a significant independent association with fatherhood in the setting of teenage pregnancy: a history of parental separation/divorce in early childhood, exposure to family violence in early childhood, and illicit drug use (ever or in pregnancy). Conclusions Fathers, in the setting of teenage pregnancy, are more likely to report adverse early family relationships, such as exposure to domestic violence or parental separation or divorce. As such, these fathers may lack a positive role model for parenting and fatherhood.

Representations of Early Family Relationships Predict Marital Maintenance During the Transition to Parenthood.

Marital maintenance, which involves engaging in behaviors that maintain closeness and is critical to sustaining marital satisfaction, was examined in 234 husbands and wives across the transition to parenthood. Prenatal assessments of adults' attachment representations and memories of their parents' marriage during childhood predicted perceptions of maintenance in their own marriage prenatally and 24 months postpartum. Adults who dismiss the importance of early attachment and lack believable memories of their parents' marriage reported the lowest levels of prenatal maintenance. Adults who are preoccupied with their early relationships with parents and have negative memories of their parents' marriage reported the sharpest declines in maintenance postpartum. Family interventions that can help couples recognize and explore problems that may accompany parenthood are discussed.

Impact of demographic factors, early family relationships and depressive symptomatology in teenage pregnancy.

Teenage pregnancy has been well studied from a demographic risk perspective, but less data examining the early interpersonal family experiences of teenage mothers are available. We aimed to explore the relative impact of demographic, early interpersonal family relationships and depressive symptomatology as associations for teenage, as compared to non-teenage, childbearing. A prospective cross-sectional cohort study was undertaken. Institutional ethics committee approval and informed consent were obtained. Data from consecutive teenage (teenage) and non-teenage (control) subgroups of antenatal women were compared. Subjects were interviewed and completed the following questionnaires: demographic, drug use and lifestyle; early life experiences; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and General Health Questionnaire-28. In multivariate analysis, the following factors had a significant independent association with younger age of motherhood in order of magnitude: a history of parental separation/divorce in early childhood; exposure to family violence in early childhood; illicit drug use (ever or in pregnancy); idealization of the pregnancy; low family income; a positive HADS-A or HADS-D subscale score; and a low level of education. Interventions to reduce the rate of teenage births need to be multifocal and should include strategies to address early childhood exposure to parental separation and violence, reduce idealization of pregnancy, diagnose psychological symptomatology and offer alternative career choices to children defaulting in the education system.