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[The outcome of deprived infants: a retrospective study]
G C Plante1, L Huberdeau, C Gagnon
1Service de psychiatrie infantile, Hôpital Notre-Dame, Montréal, Québec.
Insights
Adults deprived as children show more maladaptation, including delinquency and depression. They experience limited social mobility and do not develop psychosomatic illnesses but may develop psychosis.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Developmental Psychology
- Sociology
Context:
- Understanding long-term outcomes for children experiencing deprivation is crucial.
- Previous research has not fully elucidated the adult trajectories of individuals with childhood deprivation syndromes.
Purpose:
- To investigate the long-term psychological and social outcomes of adults who experienced childhood deprivation.
- To compare maladaptation levels, delinquency, depression, social mobility, and psychiatric outcomes between deprived adults and a neurotic control group.
Summary:
- Adults with a history of childhood deprivation exhibited greater maladaptation compared to a neurotic control group.
- Findings indicate a higher tendency towards delinquency and potential depression in the deprived group.
- The study observed limited social mobility and no increase in psychosomatic illnesses or "young chronics," though some psychosis was noted.
Impact:
- This research highlights the persistent challenges faced by individuals with childhood deprivation, informing therapeutic interventions.
- The findings underscore the need for early intervention and long-term support for at-risk children.
- Methodological limitations, including sample size, are acknowledged, suggesting avenues for future research.
Abstract:
What happens to deprived children when they grow up? The authors tried to answer this question by initially selecting 34 subjects clearly identified as suffering a deprivation syndrome in their youth. Following theoretical considerations, the authors formulated hypotheses which they attempted to verify by comparing the nine adult subjects available who had suffered deprivation during their youth with whom they were able to establish contact with nine others diagnosed as neurotic (the control group). The authors predicted that the deprived subjects would present more disability as adults than the neurotic ones. They were predicted to be more inclined towards delinquency and depression. It was hypothesized that they would not drift into psychosis, psychosomatic illness or become "young chronics". We did not expect that they would move very much on the social scale. The authors seized the opportunity to learn more about the satisfaction with the psychiatric interventions experienced during their youth. In this study, the authors used a questionnaire and four scales of the MMPI to compare the two groups. The deprived subjects demonstrated more maladaptation with a strong tendency towards delinquency and possibly depression. They were not mobile on the social scale, and did not drift into psychosomatic illnesses or become "young chronics" but some psychosis was observed among them. In the final discussion, the authors discuss the limitations of the study due to the size of the sample and problems of the methodology, along with ways that this could be strengthened in order to more successfully answer some of the questions raised.