Familial transmission
Transgenerational mechanisms
Clinical psychology research is particularly strong in explaining the maintenance of mental disorders. Our knowledge of the causes and origins of mental disorders is not as profound. Family is a central context for the development of mental health and illness. In this research group, we address the question of how mental health and mental disorders are transmitted within a family. We consider psychological mechanisms such as social referencing or imitation learning as important candidates here. In our studies, we are interested in whether and how individual psychopathological features (not entire disorders) are passed on or learned, e.g., in parent-child interaction.
Principal Investigator and Team
Prof. Dr. Silvia Schneider
Prof. Dr. Sabine Seehagen
Rabea Derhardt M. Sc.
Melanie Wieschmann M. Sc.
Collaborator
Free University of Berlin, Prof. Dr. Babette Renneberg (coordination of ProChild & sub-project 1)
University of Bremen, Prof. Dr. Nina Heinrichs (sub-project 3)
Ruhr-University Bochum, Prof. Dr. Robert Kumsta (sub-project 4)
Free University of Berlin, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Urban-Stahl (sub-project 5)
Funding
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Funding number 01KR1805B)
Duration
Since June 2019
Description
Being exposed to violence and maltreatment as a child is a severe and well-documented risk factor for abnormal development. Children of mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are at a particularly high risk of experiencing violence and maltreatment. There is compelling evidence that exposure to environmental adversity during childhood is associated with negative outcomes in adulthood. While the adverse impact of maternal BPD and the associated violent parenting practices on their children are known, the disorder-specific impact of maternal BPD on their children and the potential beneficial effects of a disorder-specific parent training on the children have not yet been investigated in detail.
Therefore, the overall goal of the ProChild study is to improve prevention of maltreatment and to promote mental health in children of mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD) by strengthening mothers’ parenting skills.
The first aim of the present sub-project 2 is to examine the emotion regulation strategies and mental health status of children of mothers with BPD compared to a) children of mothers with anxiety disorders or depression and b) to children of mothers with no mental disorder. Secondly, the impact of a disorder-specific parenting program on the children’s emotion regulation and mental health is studied. Additionally, potential mediators and moderators will be considered. Children’s mental health status will be assessed with a structured Interview (Baby-DIPS and sub-sections of the Kinder-DIPS). Children’s temperament will be assessed via maternal report using questionnaires. Emotion regulation of the children will be explored using age-appropriate waiting tasks. All parameters are measured before and after the parenting training. A total of 324 children between 6 months to 6 years will be recruited, of which 178 account for children of mothers with BPD, 66 for children of mothers with depressive or anxiety disorders, and 80 for children of healthy mothers. Patients will be recruited by contacting individual therapists who specialize in BPD treatment. We assume that 10% will not meet the inclusion criteria. Furthermore, we expect a dropout rate of 25%. Consequently, final analysis will be conducted with 150 children of mothers with BPD and 70 control children.
Principal Investigator and Team
Prof. Dr. Silvia Schneider
Dr. Sabine Seehagen
M.Sc. Johanna Schoppmann
Funding
German Research Foundation (DFG: 415/8-1)
Duration
October 2016 – September 2019
Description
This project focused on mechanisms involved in learning to use the emotion regulation strategy 'distraction' in frustrating situations in toddlers. Four studies were planned to gain new insights into what factors help toddlers to successfully regulate themselves. The first study aimed at discovering whether toddlers can learn distraction through imitation and whether it makes a difference if the adult model was familiar or a stranger. The second study aimed at finding whether toddlers imitate distraction better from older siblings or their parents. A third study researched whether 3-year-olds can learn distraction through picture book reading and what characteristics in both the picture books and also the way it is read play a role. The fourth study strived to take a closer look at the relationship between temperament and the learning of emotion regulation strategies.
Principal Investigator and Team
Prof. Dr. Silvia Schneider
Prof. Dr. Albert Newen
Samantha Ehli, M.Sc.
Dr. Babett Voigt
Funding
Graduate college "Situated Cognition" of the German Research Foundation (GRK-2185/1)
Duration
June 2017 – May 2020
Description
In daily life, infants are often faced with ambiguous situations. Literature suggests that during these situations, infants usually increase their looking behaviour towards social partners (social referencing, SR). The ‘situated cognition’ framework claims that infants’ SR varies with social context features, such as familiarity of the social partner. Accounts, like the social-cognitive account and the co-regulation account, about the functions of SR diverge in their predictions on how familiarity influences infants’ SR. Our aim was elucidating SR’s function in infancy by examining SR patterns, affectivity and exploratory behaviour in situations of different levels of threat and with social partners of different familiarity.
Transgenerational interventions
Mental disorders run in families. While the effects of mental disorders on members of a family are well studied, there is little research on the effects of successful treatment of a mental disorder on family members. Our research group is studying the effects of successful psychotherapy on family members, from parent to child ("top-down") and from child to parent ("bottom-up"). In dismantling studies, we also seek to identify the role of family member involvement, particularly parent participation, on successful psychotherapy.
Principal Investigator and Team
Prof. Dr. Silvia Schneider
Dr. Kerstin Konietzny
Dr. Omar Chehadi
Dipl. Psych. Angela Köster
Dr. Verena Pflug
Collaborator
Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Prof. Dr. Maike Luhmann and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Margraf
Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Prof. Dr. Robert Kumsta
Department of General Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Prof. Dr. Horst Christian Vollmar
Institute of General Medicine, Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich, Prof. Dr. Jochen Gensichen
Deaprtment of Health Economics and Health Services Research at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Prof. Dr. Hans-Helmut König, Dr. Christian Brettschneider
Institute of General Medicine, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Martina Heßbrügge
Funding
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Funding number 01EE1801A)
Duration
Since June 2019
Description
Since 2014, Germany has received more than 1.3 million refugees, including many young children. Among refugees, mental health problems are highly prevalent. Approximately more than 50% of the refugees who fled armed conflicts are affected by mental health problems, such as depression or anxiety. Parental mental health problems as well as an unfavorable parenting style are major risk factors for children to develop mental health problems as well. To avoid a public-health tragedy and to maximize healthy development as well as integration into German society, low threshold and cost-effective interventions for refugee families with young children are needed within the primary care system. Given that effective early interventions yield the highest return on investment, our primary goal is to minimize mental health problems in refugees and to prevent their development in their children by addressing parental psychopathology as well as by improving parenting skills. For this purpose, we will provide and evaluate the IMPROVE program, a low threshold, primary care-based treatment and prevention program, for refugee families and their young children (0-6 years). Using culturally sensitive approaches, we will directly target the major access point into the German health care system (general practitioners), and address a group at high risk of developing mental disorders: Children of parents with mental health problems. Specifically, parents with mental health problems will receive the IMPROVE program via general practitioners, including a short treatment to deal with symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as an online training to promote a positive parenting style and accompanying phone calls with a psychologist. To examine the effects of the IMPROVE program, compared to a treatment as usual, parents are invited to take part in interviews on mental health outcomes and fill in questionnaires. It is hypothesized, that the IMPROVE intervention is superior to a treatment as usual, regarding the parental mental health as well as the long-term health of their child.