Infantile anorexia: dyadic and triadic interactions during feeding and play

LUCARELLI, LOREDANA;SIMONELLI A;AMMANITI M.

2012-01-01

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Abstract

Family interactions: Protective and risk factors associated with severe developmental problems Mazzoni S. (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy), Feldman R. (Bar Ilan University, Israel), Lucarelli L. (Psychology Department, University of Cagliari, Italy), Alessandra S. (DPSS- Faculty of Psychology, University of Padua, Italy), Ammaniti M. (Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy), Veronesi C. (Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy), Vismara L. (Department of Psychology, University of Cagliari, Italy) Observation of family interactions is essential to study child development trajectories. Several procedures evaluated the development of family coordination and coparenting from the pre-natal period through to preschool years (Fivaz-Depeursinge, Corboz-Warnery, 1999; Favez et al., 2006; McHale, 2011) and several studies observed the quality of family interactions considered as risk and protective factors related to child functioning (Feldman, 2007; Jacobvitz et al., 2004; Mazzoni et al., 2010). Such studies may improve psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic interventions (Sameroff, 2004). The Symposium aim is to focus on parenting at risk because of child psychopathology and to discuss both assessment procedures and proposal of interventions. Feldman will present results from two longitudinal studies, the first following a group of well-functioning parents and their firstborn from birth to 3 years, the second assessing children exposed to chronic maternal depression from birth to five years. In the first study, maternal and paternal Oxytocin and micro-level triadic interactions in the first six months of life predict children's interactions with their best friends at 3 years, indicating a transfer from the atmosphere of the family to the first close non-kin relationship. The second study addresses the father role in the context of chronic maternal depression and shows that father engagement and coparental mutuality within a triadic family interaction at five years predicts lower child propensity for psychopathology, higher child social engagement, and more optimal HPA-axis functioning among children of depressed mothers. Lucarelli, Simonelli and Ammaniti will focus on Infantile Anorexia. Considering previous results that showed mother-child conflictual interactions during feeding and pointed out that maternal depression and eating disorders are frequently associated with IA, the present research will explore the influence of the paternal role on mother-child affective differentiation process in children with IA. The LTP paradigm was adapted to observe father-mother-infant primary triangle in the feeding context, compared to the play context; results highlight that the procedure is useful in providing an overview of family interactions and in showing limitations and resources of the family relational functioning. Mazzoni, Veronesi & Vismara will present the clinical LTP proposed to families with children who have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Families showed different types of miscoordination at the level of participation, role organization, focal attention and affective contact. Despite the fact that family functionality was correlated with children functionality (ADOS), some cases demonstrate a counterintuitive trend: e.g. child high functionality/low family functionality and vice versa.