Citation

No Author(s) Listed. Child Abuse Negl. 1979; 3(3-4): 819-850.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

These 6 papers give a description of the origin, aims and design of the longitudinal study of child development being conducted by the Family Research Unit of The London Hospital Medical College and some preliminary findings on 5 of the areas studied. The work grew out of concern over the very high rates of child psychiatric disorders seen in an inner city area. Using a combination of epidemiological and ethological techniques the aims include an attempt to understand the origins of failure in parenting and of behavioural problems in children. The sample comprises in all 233 British born mothers and their first child from a deprived inner London Borough.As the work has developed it has become clear that as with severe child abuse, difficulties in the family are due not to a single cause but arise from an accumulation of adverse factors. Results tend to suggest, however, that these different factors are not randomly distributed, but that the presence of any one heightens the risk of others being present. The 6 papers presented here are: 1. 1) An Account of the background to the study and of the methods used.2. 2) A study of family relationships and of factors associated with a child being admitted to special care.3. 3) An examination of the associations of age and marital status with problems during pregnancy.4. 4) A study into the nature of depression in mothers of young children.5. 5) The prognostic value of certain atypical behaviour characteristics seen in six day infants.6. 6) Evidence of transmitted deprivation among women from broken homes.