Child Development and Early Triadic Relationships

Abstract

A study of early development beginning in pregnancy and extending to the end of the child's first year of life is presented. The aim is to understand the relational processes of early childhood by using the concepts of triadification and triangulation. A prospective longitudinal study was conducted with forty-one parents and their first-born infants. The parents subjective views about their parenthood and the unborn child were systematically analysed during pregnancy, targeting their representations of their own childhood experiences their partnership, and their relationship with their fantasised child. These dimensions were compared with the quality of dyadic and triadic parent-child interactions observed after the child was born. The pre-natally assessed level of triangulation in the parental fantasies correlated strongly with the quality of triadic interactions with the 4-month-old infant in a play situation and with the quality of dyadic interactions with the one-year-old infant in a stressful situation. The authors conclude that the child's relational development can be understood in triadic terms from the beginning, but that there is a regressive pull towards two-plus-one relationships under conditions of emotional dysregulation. Consequences for a psychoanalytic theory of early development are discussed.

How early triadic family processes predict children's strengths and difficulties at age three

“…In a first step we replicated associations found in earlier studies (Carneiro et al, 2006;von Klitzing et al, 1999b) and hypothesized that parental Triadic Capacity before the birth of the child is prospectively related to Trilogue Quality in the family. To rule out the possibility that the associations are due to third variables, such as parents' psychological distress, education level, and marital quality, we first looked at whether those factors (assessed before the birth of the child) were related to prenatal Triadic Capacity and/or Trilogue Quality.…”

“…Von Klitzing and Bu¨rgin (2005;von Klitzing, Simoni, Amsler, & Bu¨rgin, 1999a;von Klitzing, Simoni, & Bu¨rgin, 1999b) complemented the research on triadic family functioning by examining the representational aspect before the child is born. The thesis that relationship patterns are transmitted from one generation to the next is a central one in the psychoanalytical literature (for example, Bowlby, 1973Bowlby, , 1988Emde, 1988).…”

“…A previous study (Perren, von Wyl, Simoni, Stadlmayr, Bu¨rgin, & von Klitzing, 2003) established the negative impact of parental psychiatric disorders on Triadic Capacity. Additionally, Triadic Capacity proved to be a reasonably stable dimension (prenatal assessment/assessment 1 year after birth, r ¼ .75; von Klitzing et al, 1999b).…”

“…A few studies have demonstrated an association between parental prenatal representations of future family relations and postnatal family development. Von Klitzing et al (1999b) showed that triadic relational capacities assessed prior to the birth of the child predicted the quality of triadic interaction when the child was 4 month old. Carneiro, Corboz-Warnery, and Fivaz-Depeursinge (2006) recently found comparable associations.…”

“…High scores on this scale reflect high capacity, while low scores indicate low capacity to form triadic interactions between mother, father, and child. Validity of the Triadic Interview has been established in previous studies (von Klitzing et al, 1999aKlitzing et al, , 1999b.…”