Judith Harel

The child's active role in mother–child, father–child psychotherapy: A psychodynamic approach to the treatment of relational disturbances

The short-term mother-child and father-child psychoanalytic psychotherapy assumes that children develop specific types of relationships with each parent, as well as with the parenting couple. The model integrates an intra-psychic, object-relational view with an interpersonal perspective to the treatment of relational disturbances in childhood. The same therapist meets with the mother-child, father-child dyads on a weekly basis, along with regular meetings with the parental dyad. The model focuses on the developmentally prelatency childs need for the active participation of both parents in the here-and-now shared experiences of the therapeutic process. The participants express, in interactions and in enactments, various contents and meanings of their specific patterns of relations. The therapist addresses the behaviours as well as the meanings of relations, thus promoting reflective understanding and experiential changes in self, other, and self-other relations. The childs active and different participation with each parent is the main change-promoting factor. The child uses mainly the medium of play to express his/her needs and to mobilize the therapists help. The therapists access to the different dyads is utilized to better understand the explicit and implicit relational themes. The therapist supports the co-construction of new and different behaviour patterns and the co-creation of additional meanings to representations. The setup fosters the childs active participation in each dyads growth-promoting changes.

HAND PREFERENCE AS RELATED TO DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR IN INFANCY

55 healthy infants were assessed for their developmental and behavioral patterns at the age of 9 mo. Hand preference was assessed at 20 mo. of age. The distribution of hand preference showed 12 were right-handed, 11 left-handed and 23 ambidextrous. This distribution appears shifted more to the left than that reported for older children. Although their data were based on different tests not appropriate for 9-mo.-old infants ambidexterity appeared to reflect part of the hand-preference continuum. No significant relationship between hand preference and developmental attainments was noted. Perhaps a larger sample would provide a clear developmental behavioral pattern and hand preference in infancy.

Insufficient responsiveness in ambivalent mother-infant relationships: Contextual and affective aspects

Abstract The present study focused on mother–infant relationships across different situations in order to compare the ways secure and ambivalent-resistant dyads modulate positive and negative emotionality. Sixty-one Israeli mothers and their 12-month-old non-risk infants participated in a sequence of free play, Ainsworth Strange Situation, and a task involving filling out questionnaires, one of which referred to anxiety in the dyad. A comparison between the mothers of secure ( n =49) and ambivalent ( n =12) infants indicated that the latter group displayed less positive affect in play, reported more separation anxiety, but, at the same time, did not respond in a sufficient way to their child’s bids for attention after experiencing a stressful separation. This pattern of results throws further light on the antecedents and correlates of ambivalent mother–child relationships.