Keeping mother alive: psychotherapy with a teenage mother following human trafficking

The power of new traumatic events to reignite memories and the distress of traumatic experiences earlier in life is well known to psychotherapists. When the recent trauma has been extreme, the task of assisting the patient to understand their response in the light of their earlier experience can be doubly challenging. This paper describes the therapy with an adolescent girl and her infant daughter, following the girl's escape from illegal detention, physical abuse and forced prostitution, after she was trafficked to the UK from Eastern Europe. The discussion works towards developing an understanding of the emotional interchange between the mother and infant, and the influence of the mother's traumatic experiences, on that interchange. Projective identification could be seen to occur from the mother, into her daughter, in a reversal of the situation traditionally described. The function of this for the mother and the impact on the developing infant, are considered.     

Therapeutic action in psychoanalytic therapy with toddlers and parents

Psychotherapy with toddlers and parents can focus on promoting attachment, facilitating development and improving interactions. Some techniques provide guidance to the parents, whereas others interpret to them their unconscious fantasies or ‘ghosts’ contributing to the child’s disorder. A recent paper introduced a psychoanalytically oriented technique, which emphasised the therapist’s interaction with the child in the presence of the parent(s). The child was addressed about his/her unconscious motivations in the session and the feelings towards the therapist. Also, the parent’s transference onto the therapist was seen as a vehicle that might further the therapeutic process and was accordingly addressed. The present paper analyses the therapeutic action in such treatments. Whereas work with the parents resembles that of ordinary psychodynamic therapy, therapeutic action is more difficult to conceptualise regarding the toddler, whose understanding of verbal interpretations and the therapist’s dialogues with the parent is more limited than that of an adult. However, a clinical vignette demonstrates a toddler’s precise and swift reactions to communications from mother or therapist. The paper investigates evidence from neuroscience and psychological research as to which communicative channels – beyond words – toddlers might perceive and comprehend. In addition, it is claimed that the countertransference is key to explaining how the therapist understands such communication.     

Pete the diesel: Psychotherapy with a severely disturbed five-year-old boy

The psychic significance of the figure of the grandmother in psychodynamic psychotherapy has received scant attention. This paper develops the concept of the ‘grandmaternal transference’ in parent–infant psychotherapy and explores its identification, its possible functions and its therapeutic significance. The grandmaternal transference has special relevance to parent–infant psychotherapy since the grandmother often represents both the mother’s mother and the child’s grandmother and offers a unique third position between mother and child. Three clinical vignettes illustrate how the grandmaternal transference may operate in this third position. In the first vignette, the therapist becomes in the transference a containing grandmother thereby facilitating maternal containment. In the second case, the therapist may be experienced as a differentiating grandmother able to help mother and infant with separation and individuation. In the third one, the therapist is transferentially experienced as a paternal grandmother who acts as a pseudo-father able to embody the paternal function. In each of these positions, the transference and countertransference – whether positive or negative – require that the therapist responds to rather than enacts the grandmaternal role. The three configurations of the grandmaternal transference have different clinical manifestations and offer different therapeutic ports of entry.     

Young children's ability to solve spatial problems involving a choice

When do young children become able to make an adequate choice between two alternatives based on spatial information? Children of 20, 30, and 40 months of age were either presented with two objects with different cross-sections and one aperture, or one object and two different apertures. In each trial there was one object – aperture match and the task was to find that match and insert the object. All the children understood the task and tried to solve the problems but the 20-month-olds performed randomly and not even the 40-month-olds chose all the correct correspondences consistently. The results also showed that it is easier to choose between apertures than objects. This contrasts with the ability to solve the insertion problem once the choice was made. When choosing the correct object or aperture, the 40-month-olds inserted the triangle successfully in 85% of the cases. The boys and girls were equally good at solving the task, but the boys did it faster. The results show that making a choice adds significantly to the difficulty of solving spatial problems. It requires systematic examination of the objects and apertures involved, a working memory that can handle at least three items at a time, and an ability to inhibit an incorrect choice. Such executive functions are typically found in older preschool children but the present task shows that with an appropriate setup their development can be traced from a much earlier age.     

Pubertal timing and self-esteem in adolescents: The mediating role of body-image and social relations

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between pubertal timing and self-esteem, and the mediating role of body-image, parent–adolescent interaction and peer support within this relationship. The sample comprised 526 adolescents, aged 10–13. Two measures of pubertal timing were used: perceived pubertal timing and pubertal timing based on Pubertal Development Scale (PDS). There were no differences in self-esteem between groups of adolescents with different pubertal timing based on PDS. Perceived early maturation was related to lower self-esteem in girls, and higher self-esteem in boys. We found evidence that the relationship between girls' perceived pubertal timing and self-esteem is mediated through the following variables: closeness to mother and father, and conflict with mother. In boys, mediators of the relationship between perceived pubertal timing and self-esteem are body-image and excessive control by mother. The results imply that interventions aiming to improve early maturing girls' self-esteem should focus on the interaction with their parents.     

Response to commentaries on discussion paper Gene–environment interdependence

There is a high measure of agreement on the key issues concerning gene–environment interdependence. Contrary to arguments on the need for direct exact replication of findings, it is suggested that “robust” replication using the same constructs is needed. RCTs have an important role for testing for environmental mediation but cannot be used for environmental risks in childhood that show G×E in relation to adult outcomes. Instead, greater use needs to be made of natural experiments. Experimental methods are needed to study biological mediating mechanisms and these should include both animal models and human brain imaging studies. In addition to further research on G×E, further studies of gene–environment correlations are required. Many challenges remain but the future for gene–environment interdependence is bright.     

Children's appraisal of their relationship with the teacher: Preliminary evidence for construct validity

Teacher–child relationships are increasingly considered as contexts for children's development. While teacher reports are mostly used to study the developmental consequences of the three attachment-based dimensions of closeness, conflict and dependency, children's perceptions are important too. This study evaluated the construct validity of the newly developed Child Appraisal of Relationship with Teacher Scale (CARTS). To this end, data from a special education sample of children with emotional and behavioural disorders (N = 82; M_age = 8.75) and from a general education sample (N = 145; M_age = 8.15) were used. Results supported the reliability and construct validity of the CARTS scales and showed that children's relationship perceptions as assessed with the CARTS were uniquely associated with their feelings about their teacher as measured with the Feelings About School. In addition, child-perceived closeness and conflict converged in expected directions with teacher-perceived closeness and especially conflict in the relationship, as measured with a questionnaire and a diary.     

Parental behaviour and children's creation of imaginary companions: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined whether parenting quality, parental behaviours and children's temperament at 6 months of age predicted children's creations of imaginary companions (ICs) at 44 months of age. At six months, parenting quality and parental behaviours were measured using the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment, and the frequency of mental-state references made during mother–infant interactions was recorded. Temperament was assessed using the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Parents then completed questionnaires assessing whether their children had ICs at 44 months of age. The results revealed that only the approach characteristic of temperament marginally predicted children's IC status. Results of the parental measures showed that parents of children with ICs were more likely to attribute mental states to their child and to refrain from intruding in their child's behaviours than parents of children without ICs. The results indicated that parental behaviours are important for children's creation of ICs.     

Infant-holding bias variations in mother–child relationships: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined the associations between maternal depressive symptoms and infant holding bias in a sample of N = 43 women during three prospective sessions: during pregnancy, two months after childbirth, and when the child was 19 months of age. The majority of mothers (65.8% on average) held their children on the left side of their body at all three sessions; approximately 30% demonstrated a change in their preference, in particular between the pre- and first post-natal session. Examination of reciprocal associations between holding bias and depression revealed that prior and concurrent depression did not predict changes in holding-side biases, whereas women's holding preferences when their infant was two months old predicted change in pre- to postnatal depressive symptoms; women favouring a right-sided holding bias were significantly more likely to report increased depressive symptoms across the perinatal period, whereas a left-sided holding bias was associated with decreased depressive symptomatology.     

Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention in children and adolescents? Examining positive affect as a moderator

This research addresses the notion that the compatibility of skills and task demands involved in an activity elicits flow-experiences that render the activity intrinsically rewarding. We applied two experimental settings designed to test the causal impact of a skills–demands compatibility on the emergence of flow and intrinsic motivation: a playful computer game (Experiment 1) and a knowledge task (Experiment 2). Results support the balance hypothesis and indicate that compatibility of skills and task demands results in a flow-experience, irrespective of the type of activity. This demonstrates the generalizability of flow-experiences across two qualitatively different types of activities. Going beyond prior research, the results of Experiment 2 reveal that flow-experiences foster the willingness to reengage in the activity in a free choice setting, which represents a behavioral measure of intrinsic motivation.