Parental capacities for triadic relationships during pregnancy: Early predictors of children's behavioral and representational functioning at preschool age
✍ Scribed by Kai von Klitzing; Dieter Bürgin
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 226 KB
- Volume
- 26
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0163-9641
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This study examines associations between parental capacities for triadic (mother-fatherchild) relationships, assessed prenatally, and the representational and behavioral functioning of their offspring at preschool age. Thirty-eight parental couples were given an intensive psychodynamic interview during their first pregnancy to assess how they anticipated their future parenthood and their relationships as threesomes (mother-father-child). The capacity for triadic relationships ("triadic capacity") was defined as the capacity of fathers and mothers to anticipate their family relationships without excluding either themselves or their partners from the relationship with the infant. Four years later, the representational and behavioral functioning of their children were assessed in depth using child narrative interviews and parental behavior ratings. The coherence of the children's narratives and the number of positive themes they expressed were significantly negatively correlated with the number of behavioral problems. In the longitudinal analyses, there were significant positive correlations between the parental triadic capacities and the coherence/number of positive themes in the children's narratives whereas parental triadic capacities showed a significant negative correlation with the number of the children's externalizing problems. The significance of triadic relational family processes for the development of children's representational world and behavioral functioning is discussed.
RESUMEN: Este estudio examina las asociaciones entre las capacidades de los padres para establecer relaciones en forma de trı ´ada (madre, padre e infante), la prenatalidad evaluada, y el funcionamiento de representacio ´n y de conducta de otros hijos a edad prescolar. A treinta y ocho parejas de esposos se les dio una entrevista sicodina ´mica intensiva durante el primer embarazo para evaluar co ´mo anticipaban ellos la futura crianza y sus relaciones como una trı ´ada (madre, padre e infante). Se definio ´a la capacidad para establecer relaciones en forma de trı ´adas ("capacidad tripartita") como la capacidad de padres y madres para anticipar sus relaciones familiares sin excluirse ellos mismos ni excluir a sus co ´nyuges de la relacio ´n con el infante. Cuatro an ˜os ma ´s tarde, el funcionamiento de representacio ´n y de conducta de sus hijos fue evaluado a fondo, usando entrevistas en las que el nin ˜o debı ´a narrar y los puntajes de conducta de