ABSTRACT
This cross-cultural study examined continuity in parent-child relationships from infancy to middle childhood in a sample of German families. Connections were traced between individual differences in a composite of markers of the parent-child attachment relationship system (including classification of the infant via the Strange Situation and parent via the Adult Attachment Interview and for mothers' ratings of sensitivity) and later parent-child communications. Findings within the mother-child relationship revealed modest links between the composite and communications and were taken to suggest that the divergent fields of attachment and family communication research are addressing similar underlying relationship processes involving the interplay between relatedness and autonomy. Further findings revealed that the composite modestly predicted variability in children's competence in forming friendships and that differences in concurrent child-mother communications significantly added to and possibly mediated these effects. Results were interpreted as supporting a process model of development, whereby adaptation is influenced by both current and past relationship status.
Subject(s)
Interpersonal Relations , Parent-Child Relations , Child Behavior , Child Development , Child, Preschool , Communication , Humans , InfantABSTRACT
How to deal appropriately with families affected by divorce has also been discussed among psychological experts for years. In this article the psychological expert opinion in a divorce is described as a possibility of intervention in a current separation conflict. Based upon a process oriented and systemic point of view the corresponding main principles and approaches are described which are essential for the task of forming an expert opinion in such a conflict.
