The effects of maternal psychiatric disorder on responsivity in the mother-child interaction and on the development of children's coping behaviour

Since the turn of the century, there has been a general awareness that children raised by parents with psychiatric disorders remain at risk for psychopathology themselves. This research investigates the mother-child responsivity and coping behavior of high risk children. Two groups of mother-infant dyads (N = 60) (mothers with and without psychiatric disorders) were coded during a videotaped, semi-structured play interaction using the CARE-Index. Results indicated that mothers with psychiatric disorders were significantly less sensitive and more unresponsive with their children than normal mothers. Mothers with psychiatric disorders who had extreme levels of psychosocial stress were significantly less sensitive and more controlling than those mothers diagnosed as living under less stressful circumstances. Children of mothers with psychiatric disorders were significantly less cooperative with their mothers in the play interaction. The results indicated that children whose mothers had chronic psychiatric disorders demonstrated significantly less effective coping behavior on all subscales of the Early Coping Inventory. Implications for the identification and treatment of children at risk for psychiatric disorder are discussed