CRISTINA MARQUES (*)

RESUMO

A depressão materna merece um lugar especial entre as situações em que a qualidade do investimento materno se encontra comprometida, não só pela sua frequência, mas também pelo papel que ultimamente lhe tem sido atribuído enquanto factor de risco psicopatológico para o desenvolvimento de perturbações emocionais na criança.

Neste trabalho são analisadas de forma mais detalhada as representações mentais de mães com sintomatologia depressiva e o seu impacto nas interacções mãe-criança, a partir de um estudo realizado na Unidade da Primeira Infância com o objectivo de avaliar a depressão materna (em correlação com outros factores de risco significativos) e o funcionamento psico-emocional dos filhos de mães deprimidas.

É efectuada uma reflexão sobre os resultados desta investigação, sendo de destacar as diferenças significativas encontradas entre mães deprimidas e não deprimidas relativamente às percepções de si próprias, da criança e a aspectos da identificação mãe-criança.

Palavras-chave: Depressão materna, representações mentais, relação mãe-criança.

ABSTRACT

Maternal depression deserves a special place amongst those situations in which the quality of maternal investment is compromised; not only because of its high prevalence but also due to the role it has been lately given as a risk factor in the development of emotional disturbances in children.

In this paper, maternal mental representations of depressed mothers and their impact on mother-child interactions are more thoroughly analyzed, from the results of a study that took place at the Infancy Unit which aim was to evaluate maternal depression (in correlation with other significant risk factors) and psychological functioning of children of depressed mothers.

The author analyses the results of this research, especially the significant differences found between depressed and non depressed mothers concerning mother's perceptions of herself, of the child and mother-child identification.

Key words: Maternal depression, mental representations, mother-child relationship.

Full text only available in PDF format.

REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS

Areias, M. E. G., Augusto, A. R., Figueiredo, B., Calheiros, J. M., & Figueiredo, E. (1992). Psicopatologia do puerpério: a depressão do pós-parto. Revisão sobre epidemiologia, etiologia e extensão das suas consequências. Arquivos de Medicina, 6 (2), 104-108.         [ Links ]

Beardslee, W. R., Bemporad, J., Keller, M. B., & Klerman, G. L. (1983). Children of parents with Major Affective Disorder: a review. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 825-832.         [ Links ]

Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561-571.         [ Links ]

Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol 2. Separation, anxiety and anger. New York: Basic Books.         [ Links ]

Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol 3. Loss, sadness and depression. New York: Basic Books.         [ Links ]

Brazelton, T. B., & Cramer, B. G. (1992). As primeiras relações. São Paulo: Ed. Martins Fontes.         [ Links ]

Denis, P. (1987). La dépression chez l' enfant: réaction innée ou élaboration? Psychiatrie de L' Enfant, 30 (2), 301-328.         [ Links ]

Fisher, L. et al. (1980). Child competence and psychiatric risk. (I-IV). The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 168 (6), 323-355.         [ Links ]

Fraiberg, S., Adelson, E., & Shapiro, V. (1980). Ghosts in the nursery: a psychoanalytic approach to the problems of impaired infant-mother relationships. In S. Fraiberg (Ed), Clinical studies in infant mental health (pp. 164-195). New York: Basic Books.         [ Links ]

Gonçalves, M. J. (1990). O narcisismo da criança e relação primária. Revista Portuguesa de Psicanálise, 8, 53-60.         [ Links ]

Gonçalves, M. J. (1991). Psicoses da primeira infância - reflexões clínicas sobre o autismo infantil. Revista Portuguesa de Pedopsiquiatria, 1, 15-21.        [ Links ]

Guedeney, N. (1989). Les enfants des parents déprimés. Psychiatrie de l' Enfant, 32 (1), 269-309.        [ Links ]

Hamilton, M. (1960). A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 23, 56-62.         [ Links ]

Hammen, C., Adrian, C., Gordon, D., Burge, D., & Jaenicke, C. (1987). Children of depressed mothers: maternal strain and symptom predictors of disfunction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96 (3), 190-198.         [ Links ]

Hammen, C., Gordon, D., Burge, D., Adrian, C., Jaenicke, C., & Hiroto, D. (1987). Maternal affective disorders, illness and stress: risk for children's psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 736-741.         [ Links ]

Klein, D. N., Depue, R. A., & Slater, J. F. (1985). Cyclothymia in the adolescent offspring of parents with Bipolar Affective Disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94 (2), 115-127.         [ Links ]

Lebovici, S. (1983). La mére, le nourisson et le psychanalyste: les interactions précoces. Paris: Paidos/Le Centurion.         [ Links ]

Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton, & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50 (1-2), 66-104.         [ Links ]

Marques, C., Matos-Pires, A., Fornelos, J., Caldeira da Silva, P., & Gonçalves, M. J. (1996). Maternal mental representations and psychological funtioning of children of depressed mothers. Trabalho não publicado. Posterworkshop, 6th World Congress of the World Association for Infant Mental Health. Tampere.         [ Links ]

Radke-Yarrow, M., Cummings, E. M., Kuczynsky, L., & Chapman, M., (1985). Patterns of attachment in two and three-year-old in normal families and families with parental depression. Child Development, 56, 884-893.         [ Links ]

Radke-Yarrow, M., Nottelman, E., Martinez, P., & Fox, M. B. (1992). Young children of affectively ill parents: a longitudinal study of psychosocial development. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 31 (1), 68-77.         [ Links ]

Rutter, M. (1980). Changing youth in a changing society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.         [ Links ]

Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: a view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York: Basic Books.         [ Links ]

Stern, D. (1989). The representation of relational patterns: developmental considerations. In A. Sameroff, & R. Emde (Eds.), Relationship disturbances in early childhood. New York: Basic Books.         [ Links ]

Stern, D. (1991). Maternal representations: a clinical and subjective phenomenological view. Infant Mental Health Journal, 12 (3), 174.         [ Links ]

Stern, D., Robert-Tissot, C., Besson, G., Busconi-Serpa, S., de Muralt, M., Cramer, B., & Palace, F. (1989). L' entretien R: une méthode d' évaluation des représentations maternelles. In L' évaluation des interactions précoces entre le bébé et ses partenaires (pp. 151-177). Paris: Eshel, Genève: Médecine et Hygiène.         [ Links ]

Weissman, M. M., Gammon, G. D., John, K., Merikangas, K. R., Warner, V., Prusof, B. A., & Sholomskas, D. (1987). Children of depressed parents. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 847-853.         [ Links ]

Zahn-Waxler, C., Cummings, E. M., Mcknew, D. H., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1984). Altruism, aggression and social interactions in young children with a manic-depressed parent. Child Development, 55, 12-122.         [ Links ]

(*)Pedopsiquiatra.