Relationship between malfunction in children and malfunction in their parents : a study to establish the relationship between malfunction in children and gross symptomatology in parents

Abstract

This research project consisted of the study of 119 children between the ages of three and sixteen. These children showed some symptoms of emotional malfunctioning. Another 102 records were disregarded after a preliminary study which revealed that they were not pertinent to this study. In all, 221 children were considered, this number being the total of children seen at The Halifax Mental Health Clinic for Children during the calendar year of 1960. The main focus of this study consisted of assessing the relationship between the child’s disturbance and some pathological influence from parents and/or guardians. This relationship proved to be insignificant with these children. Previous studies, through, had revealed that parental pathology was a component in this.