Differences in affect integration in children with and without internalizing difficulties

Fiskum, Charlotte; Andersen, Tonje Grønning; Johns, Unni Tanum; Jacobsen, Karl

doi:10.21307/sjcapp-2021-016

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(93 reference statements)

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“…The current results mirror earlier results ( Johns, 2018 ; Fiskum et al, in review 1 ) showing higher affect integration after therapy when interviewing children from the main study with the affect consciousness interview ( Monsen et al, 2013 ; Taarvig et al, 2015 ). That the described changes in this study were particularly salient for anger and anxiety is also consistent with earlier results showing that integration of these affects can be especially challenging in internalizing disorders ( Taarvig et al, 2016 ; Fiskum et al, 2021 ). Finally, the processes involved in affect integration are important for and related to reflexivity and mentalizing ( Fonagy et al, 2002 ; Solbakken et al, 2011b ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Parents whose children were enrolled in the “Child Psychotherapy Project at NTNU” ( Fiskum et al, 2017 , 2021 ) were invited to participate in interviews before and after therapy. The children enrolled in the main project were between 9 and 13 years of age and deemed to suffer from internalizing difficulties based on parent reports on the child behavior checklist (CBCL) ( Achenbach and Rescorla, 2001 ) (scores elevated to borderline clinical and clinical levels) and descriptions of internalizing difficulties as evaluated by specialists in clinical child psychology.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parents’ Experiences of Change in Developmental and Transactional Processes After Time-Limited Intersubjective Child Psychotherapy – A Qualitative Study

et al. 2022

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Psychopathology in children cannot be understood without considering developmental processes and transactional relationships, particularly the relationship with caregivers. Time-limited intersubjective child psychotherapy (TIC) is a developmental and transactional approach aimed at helping children and caregivers get back on healthier developmental trajectories. Core developmental processes, such as self-other-regulation and affect integration, are considered particularly important for healthy function and transactions with caregivers and contexts. Therefore, TIC seeks to strengthen core developmental processes in the child and the caregivers’ ability to scaffold the child’s development. This is achieved through parallel child therapy and parent sessions. The current study is a qualitative study of parents’ experiences of change after TIC. The study explores parents’ perception of change in their child, themselves, and their transactions, and what they experienced as helpful in therapy.Materials and MethodsNine semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with parents (n = 13) of nine children aged 9–12 years with internalizing difficulties after completing TIC. The data were analyzed with thematic analysis.ResultsThe parents described positive changes in the children’s ability to understand, regulate and express themselves. The parents also described positive changes in their parenting, and for all nine children the parents reported positive changes in the transactions between themselves and the child. Most parents saw the parallel child and parental sessions as particularly important, while several parents mentioned play and the therapeutic focus.DiscussionParents’ description of changes after TIC indicate that the parents perceived their children as strengthened in core developmental processes important for intersubjective exchanges such as self-regulation and affect integration. In addition, parents saw their children and their own contributions more clearly, and their transactions were described as more supportive and positive.ConclusionThe results from this study give support to TIC as a developmentally supportive approach to therapy, with potential effects on children’s core developmental processes, their parents’ ability to both see and scaffold the child’s development and positive effects on the transactions between children and parents. The positive effects likely result from the integration of the different parts of TIC and the synergies taking place between them, rather than any one component by itself.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ Experiences of Change in Developmental and Transactional Processes After Time-Limited Intersubjective Child Psychotherapy – A Qualitative Study

et al. 2022

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“…Difficulties with affect integration have been related to internalizing problems in children (Taarvig et al, 2015(Taarvig et al, , 2016. In support of this, an earlier analysis of the children in the current study (Fiskum et al, 2021) showed significant differences in affect integration between children with internalizing difficulties and non-internalizing controls before therapy. Specifically, the children with internalizing difficulties were less aware of their affect, had a lower tolerance for affect, and found it more challenging to express affect to others.…”

Section: Previous Studies and Aims Of The Current Studysupporting

confidence: 85%

“…There were no significant changes in affect integration for the control children. While the clinical children scored significantly lower than the healthy controls on all aspects of affect integration before treatment (Fiskum et al, 2021), the groups did not differ significantly in overall affect integration, awareness of, or tolerance for, affect after therapy. Furthermore, the ACI scores for the internalizing group moved out of the range considered low (scores below 4) after therapy for all dimensions except Conceptual Expressivity.…”

Section: Changes In Affect Integration After Time-limited Intersubjec...mentioning

confidence: 64%

“…The blind rater rescored nine of the interviews based on audiotapes. Interrater reliability between the two raters was assessed by a two-way random intraclass correlation coefficient which ranged from good (0.82) to excellent (0.99) with a mean correlation coefficient of 0.93, showing a very high consistency between the blinded rater and the original rater (Fiskum et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Affect Consciousness Interviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in Affect Integration and Internalizing Symptoms After Time-Limited Intersubjective Child Psychotherapy—A Pilot Study

et al. 2022

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Time-limited intersubjective child-psychotherapy (TIC) is an intensive, structured right-brain oriented therapeutic approach for children and caregivers aimed at both symptom reduction and strengthening core developmental processes such as affect integration. This is the first study to investigate changes in internalizing symptoms and affect integration after TIC. Thirty-three children between 9 and 13 years with internalizing difficulties were assessed after 10 h of TIC. Internalizing symptoms were assessed through the child behavior checklist and affect integration with the affect consciousness interview (ACI). Scores from the children with internalizing difficulties were modeled in a mixed linear model along with data from a control group without internalizing difficulties (n = 24) to control for effects of time and learning. Affect integration increased significantly from time 1 to time 2 in the children with internalizing problems, but not in the control children. Internalizing symptoms were also significantly reduced in the children with internalizing difficulties from time 1 to time 2. The results indicate that TIC may contribute to a decrease in symptoms along with an increase in affect integration in children with internalizing difficulties, making the children better able to notice, tolerate and communicate affective states. This can, in turn, aid development and day-to-day regulation and interactions. The article explores key elements of TIC, such as affective attunement, relational repair, and work with caregivers using one of the individual therapies in the study as an example. The article argues that TIC represents a right-hemisphere to right-hemisphere therapeutic approach to healing that can both enhance important common therapeutic factors such a relation and alliance and bring about growth-promoting change.

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Driven or lacking access: Integration types as a subdimension of the affect consciousness construct

Vølstad

Salas²,

Solbakken³

2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionThis article examines integration types as a sub-dimension of the affect consciousness construct to account for individual differences in how problems with the experience and expression of affects manifest. The two integration types driven and lack of access describe prototypical ways of experiencing and expressing affect, differentiating between problems characterized by too much or too little affective mobilization.MethodsArchival data from a non-clinical sample (n = 157) was used to examine the validity and reliability of integration type scales from the Affect Integration Inventory (AII 2.0). Internal structure was assessed through confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) by structural equation modelling. Nomological validity was examined through tests of patterns of hypothesized associations between integration types across various affects and specific types of interpersonal problems (as measured by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems; IIP-64).ResultsCFAs indicated acceptable fit for the different integration type scales and overall construct structure. Distinct sinusoidal patterns of correlations between integration types and interpersonal problems were found for the various affects examined. All correlation patterns had good fit (GoF ≥ 0.87), with significant differences in magnitude between peak and low point correlations.DiscussionWe conclude that differences in prototypical ways of experiencing and expressing affects can be assessed easily, quickly, and reliably, have theoretically consistent intra-domain relationships and valid structural psychometric properties, are robustly related to interpersonal functioning in general, and are systematically and differentially related to specific and theoretically hypothesized interpersonal problem types.

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Differences in affect integration in children with and without internalizing difficulties

Cited by 3 publications

References 45 publications

Parents’ Experiences of Change in Developmental and Transactional Processes After Time-Limited Intersubjective Child Psychotherapy – A Qualitative Study

Parents’ Experiences of Change in Developmental and Transactional Processes After Time-Limited Intersubjective Child Psychotherapy – A Qualitative Study

Changes in Affect Integration and Internalizing Symptoms After Time-Limited Intersubjective Child Psychotherapy—A Pilot Study

Driven or lacking access: Integration types as a subdimension of the affect consciousness construct

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