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[Counseling of families with two- to three-year old children]
1Abteilung für Psychosomatische Kooperationsforschung und Familientherapie, Universität Heidelberg.
Insights
This study explores counseling for parents of toddlers experiencing separation anxiety or behavioral issues. It highlights how parental expectations impact child development and offers a model for diagnosing and treating relationship disturbances.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Family Therapy
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Focuses on counseling for parents with two- to three-year-old children.
- Addresses common issues like separation anxiety and behavioral disturbances in young children.
Observation:
- Children exhibit clinginess, avoidance of unfamiliar situations, or oppositional behavior.
- Parental expectations and projections influence the parent-child relationship dynamics.
Findings:
- Utilizes a model focusing on attachment/intimacy and autonomy/differentiation dimensions.
- Identifies how parental experiences can inadequately stress or prematurely push for autonomy.
Implications:
- Presents a typology of relationship disturbances for diagnosis.
- Illustrates diagnostic and therapeutic procedures through case examples for practical application.
Abstract:
In this paper, we present the counselling practice in parents with two- or three-year-old children. In most of the cases, the presented children are suffering from separation anxiety or behavioral disturbances. It is either a problem of infants who cling to their mothers and who avoid unfamiliar situations or of children who come into conflicts with their parents because of their oppositional behavior. The basis for our diagnostic and therapeutic procedure is a model of the relationship disturbances in the parents-child-system which is concentrated on the dimensions attachment/intimacy and autonomy/differentiation. These two dimensions are to be understood as a pair of scales loaded by the parents with burdens of conscious and unconscious expectations and projections, thus influencing the balance of the two dimensions. Based on their own experiences parents may encourage or hinder attachment or autonomy in a manner which is inadequately stressing or too early. We present the typology of relationship disturbances and illustrate the diagnostic and therapeutic procedure by case examples.