BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 13, 2007
British Journal of Social Work 2009 39(1):81-98; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcm090
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Attachment and Coping Strategies in Middle Childhood Children whose Mothers Have a Mental Health Problem: Implications for Social Work Practice
Dr. Judi Walsh is a Lecturer in Psychosocial Sciences at the University of East Anglia.
Professor Gillian Schofield is the Co-Director of the Centre for Research on the Child and Family at the University of East Anglia.
Dr. Gillian Harris is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Birmingham and Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Professor Panos Vostanis is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Leceister and Consultant Psychiatrist for Leicestershire Child Mental Health Services.
Professor Femi Oyebode is Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham and Consultant Psychiatrist for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health (NHS) Trust.
Dr. Helen Coulthard is a Research Fellow at the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham.
Correspondence to Dr. Judi Walsh, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: Judi.walsh{at}uea.ac.uk
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Mental health has implications for the quality of relationships within a family, particularly between parents and children, but also between other family and non-family members. Previous research has investigated parental reports of attachment in families with mental health problems, but relationship representations as experienced by these children, especially in middle childhood, have not been so frequently investigated. An understanding of children’s representations of attachment relationships and the different coping strategies that may result is important for social work practice when offering support, not only to the children, but also other family members. Methods of investigating attachment, such as the Separation Anxiety Test, have been used to understand the relationship issues, fears and coping strategies of other vulnerable children, and this study was designed specifically to investigate relationship issues in middle childhood children whose mothers had previously been hospitalized with mental health problems. We found that these children tended to be less emotionally open and secure, and generated fewer adaptive coping strategies than children whose mothers had never had mental health problems. Other themes also emerged from the interviews, such as a sense of trust in the parent–child relationship and the ‘containment’ of fears. Implications for social work practice are discussed.
Keywords: mental health, children and families, coping strategies, attachment, middle childhood