Child care attitudes and adaptation to the maternal role among mentally ill and well mothers.
Discharged psychiatric hospital patients who were mothers of young children were compared with a group of well mothers on child rearing attitudes and adaptation to adult social roles. Mentally ill mothers were found to believe less in the importance of developing a reciprocal mother-child relationship or in differentiating between own needs and those of child, and were more likely to deny ambivalent feelings regarding child care. In each group, less adaptive child-care attitudes were related to greater impairment in adapting to other adult roles.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications; D002668:Child Rearing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012380:Role; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications; D012917:Social Adjustment