Children of adolescent mothers: attachment representation, maternal depression, and later behavior problems.

Underlying the responses of 34 44-month-old children of adolescent mothers to five attachment narratives were two factors--departure and reunion. The departure factor included disorganized and insecure responses to parents' departure as well as disorganized responses to narratives about children's misbehavior and fear. Scores predicted children's externalizing behavior problems 10 months later and discriminated children in the clinical from those in the normal range for externalizing problems. Maternal depression explained significant additional variance in children's externalizing problems.

[Children of adolescent mothers: a group at risk for psychopathology]. / Les enfants de mères adolescentes: un groupe à risque du point de vue de la psychopathologie.

Developmental psychopathology focuses on developmental aspects of pathology as well as individual patterns of adaptation and maladaptation. Adaptation involves the resolution of earlier issues, with successful resolution facilitating adaptation and earlier developmental failures increasing the likelihood of future problems. The study of developmental psychology provides knowledge about normal processes in order to better understand psychopathology as well as groups at high risk for having problems over time. The project described in this paper focuses on applied psychoanalysis using psychoanalytic knowledge and theory in the context of an intervention project involving observational research. Two case descriptions of adolescent mothers and their children are presented to illustrate issues about problematic development in a child first observed as part of the research project and later referred to a therapeutic nursery. The cases are discussed in relation to two questions: 1/Is it possible to define and evaluate manifestations of disturbance early in life that result in definable psychopathology at school age? 2/To what extent can the selfrighting capacity of the child or environmental intervention compensate in correcting the developmental process?

Affective exchanges between high risk mothers and infants.

In this paper, we will describe patterns of emotional matching and mismatching in adolescent mothers and their infants which relate to developmental risk. These patterns of interaction will be discussed in relation to emotional development and availability, affect attunement, and the affective core. Previously, emotional communication and signalling in infancy were understood as secondary to drives. However, more recently, they have been shown to be important for adaptation in the infant-caregiver relationship. Cases will be presented to illustrate three risk patterns of negative affective exchanges between young mothers and infants and a contrasting pattern of positive, reciprocal exchanges. Positive affective exchanges between parents and infants are very important to facilitate growth and development. We believe that early preventive interventions targeted toward both internal and external environmental factors for the infant, mother, and relationship are very important to encourage positive growth.