title: Family free-play interaction: the role of the patient in the family interaction.
abstract: We have discussed the salient features of the family interaction in the free-play situation: the high rate of interaction with the child and general predominance of parental initiations in the parent-child interaction, the high correlation among all dyads on warmth. This led to the selection of three variables for study: rate of patient-child interaction, proportion of parental initiations to the child, and family warmth. There are major age changes: rate and proportion both decline with age. The patient's rate of interaction with the child and his proportion of interaction is lower than the spouse's rate. This holds for the 4- and 10-year-olds separately. We have tried to account for its reversal in the 7-year-old sample. Nonpsychotic patients have a higher rate of interaction, higher proportion of interactions, and higher family warmth than psychotics. Affectivity shows no relationship to these variables. Patients with a low global assessment score have lower rates, lower proportion, and less warmth than patients with a higher score. Patients who have been recently hospitalized have a lower rate of interactions with their sons than those who have been hospitalized longer.
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012737:Sex Factors