Marian Radke-Yarrow

Development of concern for others

The development of prosocial and reparative bebaviors was investigated by examining childrens responses to distresses they caused and those they witnessed in others during the 2nd year of life. Prosocial behaviors (help, sharing, provision of comfort) emerged between the ages of 1 and 2, increasing in frequency and variety over this time period. These behaviors were linked to expressions of concern as well as efforts to understand and experience the others plight. Childrens reparative behaviors after they had caused distress also increased with age. Age changes in these early signs of moral development were accompanied by social-cognitive changes in self-recognition. In assessments at age 2, children were most responsive to distress in their mothers but also showed some sensitivity toward unfamiliar persons

Young children of affectively ill parents: a longitudinal study of psychosocial development.

The course of social-emotional development of young children of affectively ill and well parents was assessed. The families were classified by mothers diagnosis: bipolar illness (N = 22), unipolar depression (N = 41), and normal (N = 37). Fathers diagnosis also was obtained. Pairs of siblings were studied; the younger was between 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 years and the older between 5 and 8 years when the study began. They were seen again 3 years later. Psychiatric assessment and mothers report were used to evaluate childrens disruptive behavior, anxiety, and depressive characteristics. The frequency of problem-level behavior changed over time in relation to mothers diagnosis. By middle and late childhood, significantly more children of affectively ill than well mothers had depressive and disruptive problems and multiple behavior problems. Offspring of unipolar mothers developed problems earlier and both siblings were more likely to have behavior problems.

Attachment with affectively ill and well mothers: Concurrent behavioral correlates

The objective of this study is to explore relations between the quality of attachment relationships and control and affective interaction in families with unipolar depressed, bipolar depressed, and well mothers. As part of a large longitudinal project, attachment assessments were made, using the Strange Situation procedure, with 112 mothers and their children (aged 15–52 months). Sixty-seven percent of the children of bipolar depressed mothers were classified insecure, in comparison with 42% of children of well and unipolar mothers. Mothers of insecure children were more downcast, tended to show less tenderness/affection, were more likely to express extreme levels of anger/irritability, and were more likely to express high levels of two or more negative affects (i.e., anger, anxiousness, downcast) than were mothers of secure children. Relations were strongest in the depressed-mother groups. Insecure children expressed less tenderness/affection than did secure children (particularly in the unipolar group), and insecure girls were more likely to express high levels of anger/irritability than were secure girls. The value of studying risk and protective factors from an interactive perspective is emphasized.

A prospective study of the association among impaired executive functioning, childhood attentional problems, and the development of bipolar disorder

Studies of adults who have been diagnosed with, and treated for, bipolar disorder have shown that these patients exhibit impairment on measures of executive functioning. However, it is unclear whether executive dysfunction precedes the diagnosis of bipolar illness, or develops subsequent to its onset. Moreover, investigators have failed to control for the effects of premorbid attentional problems on cognitive performance in these patients. The present authors explored these questions using data from a longitudinal prospective study of individuals at risk for major mood disorder. Results revealed that 67% of participants who met criteria for bipolar disorder in young adulthood showed impairment on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) when they were assessed during adolescence, as compared with 17% of individuals with no major mood diagnosis, and 19% with unipolar depression. This association between performance on the WCST and bipolar illness was not accounted for by high rates of premorbid attentional disturbance. In fact, among participants with early attentional problems, only those who ultimately developed bipolar disorder exhibited impairment on the WCST. Early attentional problems that preceded unipolar depression or no mood disorder were not associated with executive dysfunction.

Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology: Hard growing: children who survive

Children are inherently vulnerable, but also they are strong in a determination to survive and grow. Over the generations of scientific study, these complementary themes have directed much research concerned with childrens physical and psychological development under conditions that threaten their well-being or survival. The field of study known as “risk research” provides an example of this dual orientation, with its focus on the individuals vulnerabilities and resistances to risk and stress (Garmezy, 1981). One historical stimulus for the present era of risk studies is no doubt to be found in the observations by Spitz and Wolf (1946) of infants’ responses to institutionalization and lack of mothering. Severe disturbances, described as anaclitic depression, developed in some infants, and some of these infants died. A little more than a decade later, Harry Harlow gave his American Psychological Association presidential address on “The Nature of Love” (1958). His findings, based on an animal model and an experimental paradigm, showed similar stark results with infant monkeys: Severe environmental deprivation has profound effects on infants’ social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and well-being. The multitude of studies that followed almost all documented or elaborated the findings of deteriorative processes set in motion when infant monkeys were deprived of mothering. Across a wide range of studies on human infants who had suffered deprivations and neglect, as reviewed by Yarrow (1961), there were similar conclusions concerning both immediate and enduring damage to children. In the voice of that period, the primary message was that biological sufficiency was not sufficient, that monkey and human infants alike depended on love and psychological nurturance for their survival.

Resolutions of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young children

Control interactions between 87 well and affectively ill mothers and their 15- to 51-month-old children were studied. Spontaneously occurring control interventions (conceptualized as episodes of interaction between mother and child) were coded from 90 minutes of videotaped interactions in a naturalistic laboratory apartment setting. The results suggest developmental changes in mother-child interaction in the 2nd to 4th years of life: the increase of the rate of immediate maternal success (p < .05) and compromise (p < .05), on the decrease in maternal use of power (ultimate sucess by enforcement, p < .01). Well mothers achieved compromise with their children, particularly daughters, more often than did affectively ill mothers (p < .05). Affectively ill mothers more often than well mothers avoided confrontation with their children (p < .05). The impairments in control interventions of affectively ill mothers were exacerbated by the severity of the disorder.

Suicidal ideation and attempts: a longitudinal investigation of children of depressed and well mothers

OBJECTIVE This study uses a prospective longitudinal design to examine suicidality (ideation, plans, attempts, and completions) in children and adolescents, to compare suicidality in the offspring of depressed and well mothers, and to identify correlates and predictors of suicidality. METHOD Two children (n = 192) from each of the families in an ongoing longitudinal study of the offspring of mothers with major depressive disorder (n = 42), with bipolar disorder (n = 26), or without past or current psychiatric diagnosis (n = 30) were studied. Assessment of suicidality, based on diagnostic interviews, was made when the younger of the sibling pairs were approximately 6, 9, and 14 years of age and older siblings were approximately 6, 9, 13, and 18 years of age. RESULTS Children of depressed mothers were more likely to report suicidal thoughts or behaviors than were children of well mothers (particularly the older sibling cohort). Developmental trajectories of suicidality differed for offspring of mothers with major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Links were found between lifetime reports of suicidality and the adolescents mood problems (e.g., hypomanic behavior), coping strategies, and parental rejection. Also, childs and mothers suicidality were related. CONCLUSIONS These findings have implications for planning interventions targeted at preventing suicide in youth.

Resilience and vulnerability in children of multiple-risk families

Under high-risk conditions of genetic and family environmental origins, some children maintain a high level of adaptive behavior, whereas others develop serious problems. What distinguishes these children? Using measures systematically obtained in a 10-year longitudinal study, standard case studies were developed on 18 resilient children with healthy adaptation throughout development (psychiatric assessment) and on 26 troubled children with serious persistent problems. All children had family risks of affective illness in both parents and a highly chaotic and disturbed family life. Well children of well parents and well-functioning families were a comparison group. The children were preadolescent or adolescent at the time of most recent assessment. The ill and well families had similar demographic characteristics. Resilient and control children were very similar on most measures. Troubled children as a group had lower scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised, were more often shy, had poor academic achievement, and had a history of poor peer relationships. Resilient children elicited more positive reactions from teachers, were more likely to be the favored child in the family, and had more positive self-perceptions. Profiles of each child showed competing processes of vulnerability and coping. Children used a wide range of methods for coping with parental and family pathology. Resilience appeared variably robust or fragile depending on the combinations of risks and supportive factors present and the styles of coping with stress.

Long-term outcomes of youth who manifested the CBCL-Pediatric Bipolar Disorder phenotype during childhood and/or adolescence.

OBJECTIVE Recent studies have identified a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) profile that characterizes children with severe aggression, inattention, and mood instability. This profile has been coined the CBCL-Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (PBD) phenotype, because it is commonly seen among children with bipolar disorder. However, mounting evidence suggests that the CBCL-PBD may be a better tool for identifying children with severe functional impairment and broad-ranging psychiatric comorbidities rather than bipolar disorder itself. No studies have followed individuals with the CBCL-PBD profile through adulthood, so its long-term implications remain unclear. The present authors examined diagnostic and functional trajectories of individuals with the CBCL-PBD profile from early childhood through young adulthood using data from a longitudinal high-risk study. METHOD Participants (n=101) are part of a 23-year study of youth at risk for major mood disorder who have completed diagnostic and functional assessments at regular intervals. RESULTS Across development, participants with the CBCL-PBD phenotype exhibited marked psychosocial impairment, increased rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors and heightened risk for comorbid anxiety, bipolar disorder, cluster B personality disorders and ADHD in young adulthood, compared to participants without this presentation. However, diagnostic accuracy for any one particular disorder was found to be low. CONCLUSIONS Children with the CBCL-PBD profile are at risk for ongoing, severe, psychiatric symptomatology including behavior and emotional comorbidities in general, and bipolar disorder, anxiety, ADHD, cluster B personality disorders in particular. However, the value of this profile may be in predicting ongoing comorbidity and impairment, rather than any one specific DSM-IV diagnosis.

Roots, Motives, and Patterns in Children’s Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior is a matter of ancient as well as modern interest. The long history of philosophy and social thought about the “goodness” of human nature makes us aware that current empirical research and the theories upon which it is based are not fashioned de novo but have their origins in these predecessors. Human nature has been variously regarded. It has been viewed as innately endowed with feelings of compassion in Confucian philosophy (Chan, 1963), as naturally virtuous and with a communal sense of seif (Rousseau, 1755/1952), as waging a war of all against all and as based on rational self-interest (Hobbes, 1651/1952). Accordingly, children have been variously regarded and reared, and, perhaps, as a result, they have been variously prosocial.