Effects of Parents Depressive Illness on a Child - Essay Example

DEPRESSIVE ILL PARENT INTRODUCTION: Whether the species are insects, or birds, or animals or human beings, the parental care is the utmost important and basic elixir of life for the young ones to spring up. It is the boon for every ward. Be it a boy or girl, a child can spring up to the level of a matured adult only through proper parental care. When one of the parents succumbs to depressive illness, the plight of the children becomes pathetic. Impact on a boy or girl of a father becoming a mentally depressed patient is practically given less attention. This is because, during infancy, childhood, adolescence and adult hood the interaction of a father with his kids is usually result oriented on both sides. To get a need satisfied, a boy or girl has to pay heed to the instruction or advice of a father. Such type of feeble relationship between a father and kids does not impact any significant effect, when the father gets mentally ill. The additional load of caring on the mothers’ part in such cases is negligibly nil, since during normal lifestyle the load on the part of a mother is considerably greater than that of a father. But when a mother gets mental depression and related psychic problems, the entire scenario is different. This is because normal role of a mother consists of several attitudes, actions and attachments in nursing the children. The impact on the kids of a mother becoming mentally insane is enormously big and is very complex in diagnosis and treatment. The effects of such insanity of a mother also vary on boys and girls. A mother’s insanity creates a very strong psychological vacuum in a boy, changing entirely the mould of the boy’s character. But the effect on a girl is purely pragmatic with minimum psychological break. The girls are naturally practical in their attitude. Hence, the impact of the mother’s illness especially mental illness fades after certain period of time, leaving behind a few traces of the effect of the mental depression. On becoming an adult woman, she considers her mother’s depression-caused ill effects as the due share of the latter’s earlier deeds and accepts the whole past as such. 1.EARLY SOURCE OF MATERNAL DEPRESSION: Long back in 1979, Marjorie Fiske has ascribed certain factors to the depressive illness of a mother. According to Majorie, most of the middle-aged women had willingly or reluctantly adopted a ‘receptive-nurturing’ form of behavior. Women exhibit this type of behavior at least until the end of child rearing period. Although it fits in some cases and does not fit in some other cases, the activities of women are mainly adapted to the needs and demands of other people. The fact that it does not fit to some women becomes apparent when the hidden resentments are so bitter that they lose their spontaneity and become sarcastic. After droning under the mask of becoming a good wife and mother, the latent reluctance in women assumes the role of emptying the nest. While such emptying the nest itself appears to be the cause of her distress, even a small seemingly unrelated event triggers the release of long pent-up emotions resulting from the feeling of being locked up. (Majorie Fiske, 1979) Children of such reluctant mothers sense the lack of maternal joy and affection early in their lives especially in their infancy. This type of vacuum makes the children unable to understand the environmental impact on them. They seldom see the unhappiness as a result of forces within themselves. But since they are bereft of maternal affection, they consider the unhappiness a natural relation to external frustrations and they want the external environments to change instead of accepting the idea that they must change to get the unhappiness done away with. (Harry Gottesfeld, 1979) 1.2. MISCONCEPTION OF BEHAVIORISM Misconceptions of child behaviors by the parents too become the cause of such depression and resultant outcome. Parents feel that the child’s behavior is the source of their deperession, which is not actually the case. Richard O’Connor (2003), a mental health Professional Psychologist found in practice that it were the children who reacted to the parent’s distress. Children of depressed mother begin to learn first the moods and behavior of their mother herself through whom they are supposed to learn the entire world. Viewing the kids as the source of trouble is the syndrome suffered by the depressive ill mother. By resorting to the expulsion of a troublesome kid out of home, a depressed parent places the next kid in age step in a troubleshooting niche. (Richard O’Connor, 2003). This in no way lessens their problem of depression, but in contrary escalates the problem. 2. POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION: Many a researchers and clinicians ascribe postpartum depression of young mothers to the lessened ability to support the infant in regulating the affect, in less positive and synchronized affect expression. Young mothers find it very difficult to adjust to their baby and learn to understand the infant’s needs and communications, especially when the infant is the first offspring of her. (Murray, Lynne, 1999). Most researchers are of the view that maternal depression does not occur on single ground. Marital problems are usually associated with it in addition to increased rates of behavior problems, social and emotional maladjustment and deficits in cognitive functioning in children from infancy through adolescence. The disturbed relationship between a depressed mother and her child, although does not create any psychiatric problem in the child imminently, Anita Gurien (2003) considers this as a channel through which a vulnerability to adulthood depression may be transmitted. (Anita Gurien, 2003). In countries like India, the social set up is highly adaptable in managing this postpartum depression. The grandmother of the infant comes to the rescue. She attends the young mother; her physical and biological needs and relieves all her burden related to self-care, leaving only the activities connected with infantile care at her look out. The grand mother not only functions as a maid servant but also as an experienced and efficient tutor to her daughter, the young mother, by way of imparting the techniques of learning and understanding the language of her first boy or girl. The customary of adopting this method of care giving by a preceding third generation is made obligatory in those countries in case of ‘first baby’. A chain of education is thus maintained wherein the young mother learns her lessons of a grand mother well in advance. 3. 1. CONSEQUENCES OF MATERNAL DEPRESSION: The consequences of maternal postpartum depression are not restricted to infancy, but can also extend into toddler hood, preschool age, and even school age children. Children of depressed mothers are at risk for developmental and behavioral problems and may be predisposed for developing depressive disorders themselves. Early recognition of depression is important because a depressed mother will not be in the best position to understand the cues or signals of her baby. Their interaction will be hampered by the fact that she will not be able to respond to her childs needs appropriately. Mutual perception of behavior between the children and parent in such cases get mutilated leading to gross misconceptions. Understanding other people’s emotions is the core of behaviorism. To understand the emotions, communications and interaction between kids and parent should be conducive. Children’s thirst for emancipation should not be mingled with their dependence on other issues. Proper medical and psychiatric treatment process alone will mend such depressed mothers who could not initiate or adhere to the well-structured and mature habits and behavior. 3.2. CHANGES IN MOODS OF DEPRESSED MOTHER. YB. Davenport et al (1984) established that manic-depressive mothers were more overprotective and reported more negative affect toward the child. (YB Davenport, C Zahn-Waxler, ML Adland and A Mayfield, 1984) Such overprotective trend makes the mothers feel that their kids are moving away from them without realizing the fact it is their depression-affected behavior that really exhorts the children to opt for going away from home under any pretext. Some boys prefer continue their studies out of their living place and girls want to get employed some where far from their family. Girls, even though they are mentally unprepared for marriages accept marriage at this juncture, since they consider marriage as a great relief from their environment of unhappiness. Mothers with depressive illness begin to feel the separation of children as an unjust to their ‘sacrifices’. Thereby the entire familial relationship among the members is made fragile. 3. 3. INFANTILE THUMBSUCKING Apart from the ideology of Sigmund Freud on infantile thumb sucking, which fixes the cause of thumb sucking at an early stage in the mother’s womb, the studies conducted by present day researchers mainly ascribe infantile thumb sucking to maternal alienation. (Cohn JF, Tronick E.1989). The initial need of an infant being breastfeeding, a depressed mother is quite unable to nurture this vital need. Despite several attempts by the infant to draw the attention of the mother by crying and kicking, the mother’s inattentiveness brings the child to a point of resilience. 3.4. EFFECT ON LEARNING ABILITY OF KIDS: The negative affect of a child acquired from its depressed mother interferes with the learning and the ability to process information. (Singer JM, Fagen JW. 1992). Many reports from the school authorities regarding the children’s attitudinal militancy and their incompatibility with normal and healthy children of healthy atmosphere indicate that the depressed parent is not in a position to inculcate certain basic behavioral approaches in their children. Introverts and pessimistic individuals are thus generated simply by the parental alienation. Children of depressed mother are quantitatively less matured in relation to their age and engage in low-level physical play. This type of child behavior is found its root at the mother’s postnatal depression. When the mother does not lay attention to the kid and its activities, the autonomy of the child is often misconceived and misused by the child. (Murray L, Sinclair D, Cooper P, Ducournau P, Turner P, Stein A. 1999). This is because normally a child wants its activities to draw attention of the parent either in positive or negative way. When positive recognition is obtained, the child feels content psychologically, which in turn promotes creativity in him/her. The children accept negative response or negative recognition from parent simply as a token of recognition. Although they are not bestowed with a sense of overwhelming or complete satisfaction, they force themselves to accustom to such negative responses from parents. Existence of negative attitude in children is due to repetition of such negative stimulation mutually exchanged between the depressed parent and the child. Parental depression is also found to cause impaired adaptive functioning of school going children in internalizing and externalizing the problems. (Downey G, Coyne JC. 1990). The day-to-day activities of children at school ought to be discussed and analyzed at home in a combined sitting. This would create a very strong trait in the children, making them feel they are secure and strong. Children get to know the evaluation of several events outside home and qualities of their mates through the mouth of their moms only. When they lack such parental guiding in meeting their external challenges, they feel lonely in the school and do not mingle with their mates. 3.5. EFFECT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN: Deficit attention by mothers, who are mentally depressed, has its impact on the children’s academic efforts. The concentration towards their studies is drastically reduced by the mother’s differences in daily moods and behavioral changes. In addition to the absence of academic guidance from parental side, the children of a depressed mother are subjected to various tensions and anxieties, which they are forced to meet every day on return from their school probably often with an expectation of a nice reception at home. Lesesne et al (2003) conducted a cross sectional study on 9529 mother-child dyads and found an association between activity limiting depression and ADHD in their children. (Lesesne CA, Visser SN, White CP. 2003). The different atmosphere at home subdues the ardency of many children obtained from their activities in school. Although the kids are aware that this would be the plight at home, they continue to expect a fondling mom at home each evening. But desperate situation at home make them feel defeated in a war with an unidentified enemy. 3.6. EFFECT ON ADOLESCENT OFFSPRING: The effect of maternal depression on adolescent boys and girls is enormously high, creating complex psychological maladjustments in them. Weissman et al (1997) observed higher rates of major depression, phobias, alcohol dependence and panic disorder among the adolescent offspring of mentally depressed mothers. (Weissman MM, Warner V, Wickramaratne P, Moreau D, Olfson M. 1997). Adolescent girls are more affected in this regard than the boys, since girls are in much need of a maternal companion during adolescence. Although adolescents have increasing conflicts with their parents over the quantum of freedom they think they deserve, a well-nourished maternal company would save the adolescent especially the adolescent girl from going astray. Absence of such maternal companion drifts them towards external forces the nature and qualities of which are unable to be judged by the adolescent population. The recent opening of fire by a 14-year-old boy in the school premises at Reno (Nevada) indicates the absence of parental watch on kids. The teacher’s effort in persuading the boy to drop the gun is tremendously laudable and to be noted down as guidelines in dealing with aggressive adolescents. The case is an apt piece of research material to study the effect of parental care on children. The fact that parental watch is missing in this case is well established. But whether parental depression is involved is not known from the news bulletin1. 4. EFFECT OF PATERNAL DEPRESSION: The effects of a father’s depression on children are understudied, since the role of a mother in care giving is relatively estimated high in almost all societies. However, the father’s participation of care giving is naturally enhanced, when the mother becomes a mentally depressed patient. In such cases the children react better with their fathers than the depressed mother, which was normally viewed as a strange scene in previous years. (Hossain Z, Field T, Gonzalez J, Malphurs J, Del Valle C, Pickens J. 1994). The impact of such depressed mother on girls is relatively less harmful than on boys. Boys want their needs to be fulfilled at their will at any cost, which is normally possible only through their mother’s intervention. But girls are usually made adaptable to their father’s mood and behavior. Hence, loss of maternal care and subsequent paternal care on girls are quite feasible when compared the effect of such loss in boys. CONCLUSION: On going through the literature and studies it is well found that a parental care when missed will certainly lay adverse impact both in the developmental behavior of the children and their would-become adult character. I can conclude with a direct experience felt by me in case of my daughter aged 12 years. My husband was without any job for about a year, during when his fondling and caring approaches towards our daughter was totally nil. His concentration was fully directed to get a job and stand fiscally well to maintain the family. In this period of hardship, my efforts to underpin the family running forced me to leave home in search of some petty opportunities to earn leaving my kid at school or at home. This solitude had created a sort of fear in my daughter’s mind that the whole family is in a bleak future. This had brought a hallucination in her mind that when we were talking with her in normal pace and decibel, she would express a frightened countenance and asked us not to shout. Repeated hallucinations of her made me lose my heart and I placed the matter before my husband asking him to pay heed to my daughter, although it may be difficult for him to ‘laugh in distress’. To get this problem resolved, he immediately asked me to suspend all my efforts to run in search of a job and attend my daughter as usual. Notably, this had fetched the result. Thanks to my husband’s advice, which came in a right time but for which I would have skipped to render the maternal care on my kid thereby a paternal depression would have spoilt the well being of my child. Now my daughter is free from any hallucinations and since my husband has settled now well with a business of his own, my daughter is content with his father’s role as a responsible breadwinner. * * * Reference list--- Anita Gurien, 2003, “Mother Blues- Child Blues: How Maternal Depression affects Children”, pp5, NYU Child Study Center Letter, Vol 7, No 3 Cohn JF, Tronick E.1989, “Specificity of infants’ response to mothers’ affective behavior”. Journal of American Academy of Child Adolescence Psychiatry; 28:242-8 Downey G, Coyne JC. 1990, “Children of depressed parents”, An integrative review. Psychology Bulletin; 108:50-76 Harry Gottesfeld,1979, “Abnormal Psychology”, pp405, Scinece Research Associates, Chicago Hossain Z, Field T, Gonzalez J, Malphurs J, Del Valle C, Pickens J. 1994, “ Infants of ‘depressed’ mothers interact better with their non-depressed fathers. Infant Mental Health Journal; 15:348-57 Lesesne CA, Visser SN, White CP. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in school-aged children: Association with maternal mental health and use of health care resources. Pediatrics 2003; 111:1232-7 Majorie Fiske, 1979, “Middle age ,the Prime of Life”, pp68-69, Multimedia Publications Inc, Willemsted (Curacao) Murray L, Sinclair D, Cooper P, Ducournau P, Turner P, Stein A. 1999, “The socioemotional development of 5-year-old children of postnatally depressed mothers”. Journal on Child Psychology, Psychiatry; 40:1259-71 Murray,Lynne,1999,“ Postpartum Depression and Child Development”, pp165-166, Guilford Press Richard O’ Connor, 2003, “Undoing depression:When Parents are Depressed”, @ http://www.mental-health-matters.com/index.php retrieved on 12th March 2006 Singer JM, Fagen JW. 1992, “ Negative affect, emotional expression, and forgetting in young infants”. Developmental Psychology;28:48-57 Weissman MM, Warner V, Wickramaratne P, Moreau D, Olfson M. 1997, “Offspring of depressed parents: Ten years later”. Arch Gen Psychiatry; 54:932-40. YB Davenport, C Zahn-Waxler, ML Adland and A Mayfield, 1984, “Early child-rearing practices in families with a manic-depressive parent”, American Journal of Psychiatry, 14:230-235 Read More