Severe maternal psychopathology and infant-mother attachment.

Journal article

Eighty-two mother-infant dyads, comprising women with psychiatric disorder and individually matched controls, were followed up over the children's 1st year of life. The mothers with mental illness consisted of two subgroups: first, 25 severely mentally ill mothers who had been admitted to a psychiatric unit with their infants; and second, 16 mothers from a community sample meeting research diagnostic criteria for unipolar, nonpsychotic depression. With the exception of six dyads in the in-patient group, observations were made of the mother-infant interaction and the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship at 12 months. The nature and course of the mothers' illness was also documented. Although few residual symptoms of maternal mental illness were detected at 1 year postpartum, interactional disturbances were evident among the case group dyads. A strong association was revealed between infant-mother attachment quality and maternal diagnosis; a manic episode of illness in the postpartum period was related to security in the attachment relationship, and psychotic or nonpsychotic depression was related to insecurity. Concurrent patterns of mother-infant interaction provided support for this finding.

Authors: Hipwell, A; Goossens, F; Melhuish, E; Kumar, R

• Journal: Development and psychopathology
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 157-175
• Publication date: 2000-01-01
• DOI: 10.1017/S0954579400002030
• EISSN: 1469-2198
• ISSN: 0954-5794
• Language: English
• Keywords: Psychotic Disorders; Patient Admission; Mental Disorders; Child of Impaired Parents; Female; Personality Development; Personality Assessment; Infant; Adult; Object Attachment; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Depressive Disorder, Major; Bipolar Disorder; Mother-Child Relations; Male