Patterns of Inhibition to the Unfamiliar in Children of Normal and Affectively Ill Mothers
- 1 April 1991
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Child Development
- Vol. 62 (2), 250-263
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01529.x
Abstract
Patterns of 2-3 1/2-year-old children's inhibition and their well and depressed mothers' behaviors in nonsocial and social unfamiliar situations were examined in 88 dyads. Type of unfamiliarity was associated with 2 forms of children's inhibition. 4 more specific patterns were identified: in the nonsocial situation, Inhibition to New Environment with Proximity to Mother; in the social situation, Retreat to Mother, Passivity/Withdrawal from a Stranger, and Wary/Timid Response. The unipolar depressed mothers, particularly those who were recently symptomatic and had a history of the most serious illness, had children who were most inhibited. Serious affective impairment was also associated with the least maternal facilitation of the children's approach to the unfamiliar. Boys were more inhibited to a new environment and girls were more inhibited to a new person. Relations between child inhibition and maternal behaviors suggested that for toddlers and their mothers, encounters with the unfamiliar are interactive events.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- Beyond Social Withdrawal: Shyness, Unsociability, and Peer AvoidanceHuman Development, 1990
- Development of inhibition during childhood: Evidence for situational specificity and a two-factor model.Developmental Psychology, 1990
- Maternal affective disorders, illness, and stress: risk for children's psychopathologyAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 1987
- Speech Patterning of Natural Discourse of Well and Depressed Mothers and Their Young ChildrenChild Development, 1987
- Children of depressed mothers: Maternal strain and symptom predictors of dysfunction.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1987
- Origins of individual differences in infant shyness.Developmental Psychology, 1985
- Behavioral Inhibition to the UnfamiliarChild Development, 1984
- Behavioral Inhibition in Young ChildrenChild Development, 1984
- Three-Month-Old Infants' Reaction to Simulated Maternal DepressionChild Development, 1983
- Changing a frightening toy into a pleasant toy by allowing the infant to control its actions.Developmental Psychology, 1978