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Biomedical subjects

P M Brinich

Publications and source records attributed to P M Brinich.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Behavior problems and mental health contacts in adopted, foster, and nonadopted children.

The implications of adoption for the emotional and behavioral adjustment of children have been an issue in child welfare for many years. Past research has suggested that adopted children are over-represented in mental health settings. In addition, some studies have suggested that adopted and nonadopted children differ on measures of social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive functioning. The current study used data from a large, representative sample in the United States to examine whether adopted children are more likely to have had mental health contacts or emotional or behavioral problems than nonadopted children. Age of placement in the adoptive home was examined as a variable contributing to the adjustment of adopted children. Results suggest that adopted and foster children are more likely to have mental health contacts than nonadopted children. Results are mixed regarding whether adopted and foster children have more behavior problems than nonadopted children. However, significant differences between adopted, foster, and nonadopted children disappeared when a small group of influential cases were removed. This suggests that the differences seen between the groups reflect a small number of cases and are not representative of the groups of adoptees and foster children as a whole. The vast majority of adopted children showed patterns of behavior problems similar to those of nonadopted children. These results are discussed in relation to the past literature and areas for future research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

[Significance of bond security of the child to the mother for the psychological and physical development of failure to thrive children].

The present investigation was guided by two main objectives. Our first objective was to describe the relationship between infant-mother attachment and the pediatric condition of failure-to-thrive (FTT). Second, we intended to see if differences in the security of attachment could predict individual differences in the developmental outcome of FTT children. Sixty-eight infants with the disorder of failure-to-thrive were assessed to test the following hypotheses: 1) Infants with a "secure" attachment classification at 12 months would score higher than infants classified as "insecure" on "ego-resilience" measures at 42 months. 2) Infants classified as "secure" at 12 months would show less chronicity of FTT at 42 months of age than "insecure" infants. Attachment was assessed by Ainsworth and Wittig's (1969) Strange Situation attachment classification system. At 12 months roughly half of the children (49%) were securely attached; the remainder of the sample were either avoidant (33%), resistant (12%), or unclassified (6%) (Drotar, Malone, Nowak, 1985). Attachment classification at 12 months proved to be related to ego-resilience at 42 months as measured by correlations between Ego Resilience Index Scores (Block & Block, 1980, 1984) and scores on items of the California Child Q-Sort. The results were in the predicted direction, with the secure attachment group scoring slightly higher on ego-resilience than the insecure group. However the difference was not statistically significant at the p less than .05 level. Children rated "secure" also scored higher than those rated "insecure" on 4 out of 13 ego-resilience items from the California Child Q-Sort.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Ego↗
PubMed1982

Adoption and adaptation.

A review of 5135 patients registered for their first psychiatric services at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute during the period 1969 to 1978 found 113 patients who had been adopted as children. While the representation of adoptees among Children's Service patients was somewhat higher than expected (5 per cent as against an expected 2.2 per cent), the representation of adoptees among adult patients (1.6 per cent) was actually below the expected rate (2.2 per cent in the population at large). Two thirds of the child adoptees were placed in their adoptive homes by the time they were 1 year old. There were no significant differences in psychiatric diagnoses assigned to adopted and nonadopted patients at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. The authors conclude that adoptees are not generally overrepresented in psychiatric samples, though it is true that they may be seen somewhat more frequently in child psychiatry clinics. The authors also conclude that, while adoption may serve as a focus for psychopathology in individual cases, adoption itself cannot be seen as specifically pathogenic.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1981

Relationship between intellectual functioning and communicative competence in deaf children.

A group of 39 deaf children tested at ages 2 1/2--4 and 5-6 1/2 yr achieved average scores on three tests of intellectual functioning: a modified version of the Stanford-Binet, the Performance scales of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, and four subtests from the Non-Verbal Intelligence Tests for Deaf and Hearing Subjects developed in Holland by Snijders and Snijders-Oomen [Non-Verbal Intelligence Tests for Deaf and Hearing Subjects (Wolters-Noordhoff N.V., Groningen, Holland, 1968)]. A significant positive correlation between intelligence test scores and an Index of Communicative Competence suggests that communicative competence must be given special attention when assessing the intelligence of children with handicaps that interfere with communication.

Child↗
PubMed1980

Childhood deafness and maternal control.

Comparison of the mother-child interactions of deaf-child and hearing-child dyads showed an emphasis on control (instructions and commands) by mothers of deaf children. This finding is reminiscent of previous observations regarding the mother-child interactions of mentally retarded children. The maternal emphasis on control seen in both groups may be unrelated to either deafness or to mental deficiency; instead, it may represent a "normal" adaptation to the breakdown in reciprocal communication which is commonly (and unnecessarily) seen in both deafness and mental retardation.

Child↗