Parent-child interaction in the etiology of dependent and self-critical depression

Abstract

The role of caring parent-child relationships in the development of depression has been investigated in three types of research strategies: (a) the study of secure and insecure ~tachme~t patterns in infants and young &hi~ren; fb) the study of depressed mother-child int~a~t~o~ based on the ~sumpt~on that the caring batter in thesefami~~es of children at risk for depression could contribute to the understanding of the etiology of depression; and (c) the study of normal and depressed ad&s retrospective accounts of ear& caring experiences with their parents. A major conclusion from all three research methodologies is that mental representations or internal working models of attachment of care-giving relationships are central constructs in understanding the development of a vulnerability to depression. Secure and disturbed patterns of caring relationships are internalized by the child as mental representations; impaired mental representations based on disturbed relationships can create a vulnerability to later depression. There are suggestions that an anxious or ambivalent insecure attachment may lead to a depression focused on issues of dependency, loss, and abandonment, whereas an avoidant insecure attachment may result in a depression focused on issues of sey-worth and self-criticism, with angry feelings directed toward both the caregiver and toward the self indications of possible critical per&& in the developm~t of vu~n~abil~~ to depression are atso ~onsid~ed.From various theoretical perspectives and using very different research methodologies, several research teams have investigated the role of the parent-child relationship in the etiology of depression. They have independently concluded that impairments in "mental representations" (e.g., Blatt, 1974) or "internal working models" (e.g., Bowlby, 1980;Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985) or care-giving relationships are a central construct in understanding the development of a vulnerability to depression. Some research groups have studied attachment behavior in infants and young childrenCorrespondence should be addressed to Sidney J. Blatt,

Comparison of Childhood Traumatic Experience and Attachment Styles among Patients in Suicide Attempts with Drugs and the Healthy Control Group

“…al., 2011;Adam, Lohrenz, Harper, & Streiner, 1982). When the previous studies in the literature are analyzed, it is seen that individuals who have suicidal behavior have mainly avoidant attachment styles (Blatt &Homann, 1992;Zeyrek et. al., 2009).…”

“…al., 2003). Besides, several attachment styles are suggested to be risk factors for depressive disorder and future suicide attempts (Blatt & Homann, 1992;Freudenstein et. al., 2011).…”

Dados Psicométricos Adicionais Da Versão Portuguesa Do Questionário De Experiências Depressivas

“…Quando o processo normal e sinérgico de desenvolvimento é perturbado e uma ênfase excessiva é colocada num dos dois processos, ocorre uma expressão de níveis elevados de Dependência/Necessidade e/ou de Auto-criticismo (Blatt, 2004;Blatt & Homann, 1992;Coyne & Whiffen, 1995;Quimette & Klein, 1993), conduzindo a um aumento da vulnerabilidade à depressão e ao mal-estar psicológico (distress) .…”

“…O factor de Dependência apresenta correlações mais baixas, por vezes não significativas com essas medidas de sintomas depressivos. A Dependência e Auto-criticismo são factores independentes entre si (veja-se Blatt, 2004;vejase também Blatt, 1995;Blatt et al, 1982;Fazaa & Page, 2003).…”

“…Os autores estudaram a equivalência linguística da medida, a consistência interna, a precisão testereteste, a estrutura factorial e a validade convergente, discriminante, de critério e preditiva, usando diversas amostras não clínicas e uma amostra clínica. Verificou-se, por exemplo, que relativamente à estrutura factorial obtida com uma amostra de 488 estudantes universitários, os itens com saturações superiores a .40 nos três factores eram muito similares aos itens referidos por Blatt et al, (1979). No entanto, a ordem com que os factores emergiram na solução factorial da versão portuguesa era ligeiramente diferente da solução factorial da versão americana.…”