Early child-rearing practices in families with a manic-depressive parent

Abstract

Nurturing attitudes and behaviors among seven married couples, each of which contained one partner who had manic-depressive illness, and their young children were compared with those of normal control families. Mothers from index families, in contrast to control mothers, were less attentive to their children's health needs, emphasized performance in some achievement-related areas, were more overprotective, and reported more negative affect toward the child. They also were more disorganized, less active with their children, and more unhappy, tense, and ineffective. Index parents secured lower scores in the areas of family interaction and social adjustment, and they experienced situational problems of considerable severity, including clinical depression in the well parent.