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Chronic illness and infant-mother attachment: cystic fibrosis
A Fischer-Fay1, S Goldberg, R Simmons
1Psychiatric Research Unit, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario.
Insights
Infants with cystic fibrosis (CF) show typical infant-mother attachment, but insecure attachment is linked to earlier diagnosis and poorer growth in CF infants. Psychosocial factors may impact infant health.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Psychology
- Infant Development
- Child Health
Background:
- Chronic illnesses in infancy can impact family dynamics.
- Understanding infant-mother attachment is crucial for child development.
- Cystic Fibrosis (CF) presents unique challenges for infants and families.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of cystic fibrosis (CF) on infant-mother attachment.
- To explore psychosocial factors influencing health and growth in infants with CF.
Main Methods:
- Assessed attachment patterns in 23 infants with CF and 23 healthy controls using Ainsworth's "strange situation" paradigm.
- Compared attachment distributions between CF infants, controls, and published norms.
- Analyzed differences between securely and insecurely attached CF infants based on illness severity, diagnosis age, and growth parameters.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in attachment patterns were found between CF infants and healthy controls.
- Insecurely attached CF infants were diagnosed significantly earlier.
- Insecurely attached CF infants exhibited significantly lower weight and weight-for-height at 12-18 months.
Conclusions:
- Infant-mother attachment is generally not disrupted by cystic fibrosis in the first year of life.
- Earlier diagnosis and psychosocial factors may be associated with insecure attachment and poorer growth outcomes in infants with CF.
- Psychosocial factors play a significant role in the health and growth of infants with chronic illnesses.
Abstract:
In order to evaluate the effects of a chronic potentially lethal illness on infant-mother relationships, we assessed 23 infants diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the first year of life and 23 healthy controls in Ainsworth's "strange situation" paradigm for attachment at 12-18 months of age. There were no differences in distribution of attachment patterns between the CF infants and the controls, or between either group and published norms. Comparisons between securely and insecurely attached infants in the CF group indicated that, although they did not differ in measures of initial severity of illness, the insecure group was diagnosed significantly earlier and had significantly lower weight and weight for height at 12-18 months. Although the sample is small, these findings point to the possible psychosocial impact of illness and the role that psychosocial factors can play in the health and growth of infants.