title: [Marital disharmony of the parents and child development in infancy and early childhood].
abstract: As part of a prospective study currently being conducted in the Mannheim-Heidelberg region of Germany on the neuropsychiatric development of 362 children born at varying degrees of organic and psychosocial risk, the effect of marital discord on the cognitive and social-emotional development of 315 children born into two-parent households was investigated. Both the children and the quality of the parental relationship were evaluated when the children were 3 months and two-years of age. Assessment of the children included performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, observed and reported temperament characteristics and measures of infant and child psychopathology. Evaluation of the relationship was based on pertinent information provided by the parents about their marriage within a standardized interviews as well as on the basis of a questionnaire. Results show that marital discord at 3 months does not effect child performance at 3 months, nor at 24 months. Marital discord at 2 years does affect the emotional well-being of the two-year-old i.e. is accompanied by a significant rise in psychopathological symptoms. When the effect of the stability of marital strife from the first assessment to the second was studied a significant increase in behavior problems and decrease in Bayley performance was found in the group of children whose parents' marital situation had deteriorated and failed in the meantime but surprisingly not in the group with chronic discordant relationships. Conversely, poor child performance and emotional adjustment improved with a positive change in the parental relationships. An increase, although not significant, was also found among the children whose parents' marriage had deteriorated but had not lead to separation.
authors.affiliation: Jugendpsychiatrische Klinik, Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, Mannheim.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weindrich
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laucht
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Esser
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D010553:Personality Development; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment
vernacular_title: Disharmonische Partnerbeziehung der Eltern und kindliche Entwicklung im Säuglings- und Kleinkindalter.