Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:53:35.461Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dyadic play behaviors of children of well and depressed mothers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Kenneth H. Rubin ,
Lilly Both ,
Carolyn Zahn-Waxler ,
E. Mark Cummings  and
Margaret Wilkinson
Kenneth H. Rubin*
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
Lilly Both
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
Carolyn Zahn-Waxler
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health
E. Mark Cummings
Affiliation:
University of West Virginia
Margaret Wilkinson
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
*
Address reprint requests to: Kenneth H. Rubin, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relations among maternal depression, security of attachment, and peer interactive behaviors in early childhood. Drawing from the literature, we posited that socially inhibited play behaviors in childhood would be associated with maternal depression as well as with an insecure mother-child attachment relationship. Forty-three 5-year-olds and their mothers participated in the study. There were 21 depressed and 22 affectively well mothers. Security of attachment was assessed via a variation of the Strange Situation procedure when the children were 2 years old. At 5 years of age the children were observed during free play with a familiar same-sex agemate. Results supported the hypotheses that social inhibition is associated with maternal depression and with an insecure mother-infant attachment relationship.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1991 , pp. 243 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Beardslee, W. R., Schultz, L. H., & Selman, R. L. (1987). Level of social-cognitive development adaptive functioning, and DSM-III diagnoses in adolescent offspring of parents with affective disorders. Developmental Psychology, 23, 807–815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billings, A. G., & Moos, R. (1985). Children of parents with unipolar depression: A controlled one year follow-up. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 14, 149–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cadoret, R. S. (1978). Evidence for genetic inheritance of primary affective disorder in adoptees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 463–466.Google ScholarPubMed
Calkins, S., & Fox, N. (in press). The relations between infant temperament, security of attachment, and behavioral inhibition at 24 months. Child Development.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Cummings, E. M., Greenberg, M. T., & Marvin, R. S. (1990). An organizational perspective on attachment beyond infancy. In Greenberg, M. T., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, E. M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 3–49). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cummings, E. M. (1987). Coping with background anger in early childhood. Child Development, 58, 976–984.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forehand, R., & McCombs, A. (1988). Unravelling the antecedent-consequence conditions in maternal depression and adolescent functioning. Behavioral Research and Therapy, 26, 399–405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C. (1988). Self-cognitions, stressful events, and the prediction of depression in children of depressed mothers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 347–360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hetherington, E. M., & Martin, J. (1986). Family factors and psychopathology in children. In Quay, H. & Werry, J. (Eds.), Psychopathological disorders of childhood (pp. 332–390). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kagan, J., Reznick, S., Snidman, N., Gibbons, A., & Johnson, M. D. (1988). Childhood derivatives of inhibition and lack of inhibition to the unfamiliar. Child Development, 59, 1580–1589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochanska, G. (1991). Patterns of inhibition to the unfamiliar in children of well and affectively ill mothers. Child Development, 62, 250–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovacs, M., & Beck, A. (1978). Maladaptive cognitive structures in depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 525–533.Google ScholarPubMed
Lafreniere, P., & Sroufe, L. A. (1985). Profiles of peer competence in the preschool: Interrelations between measures, influence of social ecology, and relation to attachment history. Developmental Psychology, 21, 56–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longfellow, C., Zelkowitz, P., & Saunders, F. (1982). The quality of mother-child relationships. In Belle, D. (Ed.), Lives in stress. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Parten, M. B. (1932). Social participation among preschool children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 27, 243–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, P., Lannotti, R., Cummings, E. M., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1989). Social functioning with mother and peers at 2 and 5 years: The influence of attachment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 12, 85–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radke-Yarrow, M., Cummings, M., Kuczynski, L., & Chapman, M. (1985). Patterns of attachment in two and three year olds in normal families and families with parental depression. Child Development, 36, 884–893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radke-Yarrow, M., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1990). Research on children of affectively ill parents: Some considerations for theory and research on normal development. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 349–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renken, B., Egeland, B., Marvinney, D., Mangelsdorf, S., & Sroufe, L. A. (1989). Early childhood antecedents of aggression and passive-withdrawal in early elementary school. Journal of Personality, 57, 258–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reznick, S., Kagan, J., Snidman, N., Gersten, M., Baak, K., & Rosenberg, A. (1986). Inhibited and uninhibited behavior: A follow-up study. Child Development, 51, 660–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, K. H. (1982). Social and social-cognitive characteristics of young isolate, normal and sociable children. In Rubin, K. H. & Ross, H. S. (Eds.), Peer relationships and social skills in childhood (pp. 353–374). New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, K. H. (1985). Socially withdrawn children: An “at risk” population? In Schneider, B. H., Rubin, K. H., & Ledingham, J. E. (Eds.), Children's peer relations: Issues in assessment & intervention (pp. 125–139). New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Fein, A. A., & Vandenberg, B. (1983). Play. In Hetherington, E. M. (Ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology: Socialization, personality, and social development (Vol. 4, pp. 693–774). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Hymel, S., & Mills, R. S. L. (1989). Sociability and social withdrawal in childhood: Stability and outcomes. Journal of Personality, 57, 239–255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, K. H., & Krasnor, L. R. (1986). Social cognitive and social behavioral perspectives on problem solving. In Perlmutter, M. (Ed.), Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology (Vol. 18, pp. 1–68). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., & Mills, R. S. L. (1988). The many faces of social isolation in childhood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 916–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, K. H., & Mills, R. S. L. (1990). Maternal beliefs about adaptive and maladaptive social behaviors in normal, aggressive, and withdrawn preschoolers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 18, 419–435.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, K. H., & Mills, R. S. L. (1991). Conceptualizing developmental pathways to internalizing disorders in childhood. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 23, 300–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, M. (1986). The developmental psychopathology of depression: Issues and perspectives. In Rutter, M., Izard, C. F., & Read, P. B. (Eds.), Depression in young people (pp. 3–30). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Smilansky, S. (1968). The effects of sociodramatic play on disadvantaged children. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Spieker, S. J., & Booth, C. L. (1988). Maternal antecedents of attachment quality. In Belsky, J. & Nezworski, T. (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 95–136). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Spitzer, E. J., & Endicott, J. (1979). Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version (3rd ed.). New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (1983). Infant-caregiver attachment and patterns of adaptation in preschool. In Perlmutter, M. (Ed.), Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology (Vol. 16, pp. 41–81). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Troy, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1987). Victimization among preschoolers: Role of attachment relation-ship history. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 166–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., Chapman, M., & Cummings, M. (1984). Cognitive and social development in infants and toddlers with a bipolar parent. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 15, 75–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn-Waxler, C., Denham, S., Lannotti, R., & Cummings, M. (1990). Peer relations in children with a depressed caregiver. In Parke, R. D. & Ladd, G. W. (Eds.), Family-peer relationships: Modes of linkage. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., Lannotti, R., Cummings, E. M., & Denham, S. (1990). Antecedents of problem behaviors in children of depressed mothers. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 271–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar