AN INVESTIGATION OF MOTHERS' EMPATHIC PERCEPTIONS AND CHILDREN'S ADJUSTMENT (TELOPHASIC THEORY)

This study investigated psychological adjustment in children referred to an outpaient child psychiatry clinic. The evaluation of each child involved the use of standard clinical instruments (WISC-R, Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test and Draw-A-Man Test). Data from mothers were obtained from questionnaires and ratings of their children. The sample contained 107 children who were divided by age and sex into one of four groups: preadolescent girls, preadolescent boys, early adolescent girls, early adolescent boys. The sample was divided in this manner in order to explore sex and age differences on the test findings and with rated adjustment. Exclusion criteria for subjects were: I.Q. below 80, adoption, or an age not falling within the preselected age ranges of the study. All test materials were scored within Peebles' Telophasic theoretical framework which converts personality test findings onto a personaliy map (grid). The map consists of theoretical dimensions which allow for comparisons of intraindividual consistency of personality pattern across test measures, as well as measuring the accuracy of the mother in predicting her child's personality orientation/perceptual cognitive style from her ratings. Rated adjustment of children involved two independent reviews and assessments, by clinical psychologists, of the referral problem, parental questionnaires and psychological testing report. A number of constructs from Telophasic theory were investigated: Empathic Accuracy, Reciprocity, Availability of Creative Resources, Individuation, Salience, Competence, Sensitivity, Complicity, Splitting, Overidentification, Idealizing Child/Self, and Devaluing Child/Self. It was hypothesized that: (1) a model predicting rated adjustment (outcome variable) could be constructed from a stepwise multiple regression, (2) that there should be practictable directions in the correlation coefficients between the constructs and rated adjustment, depending on whether each is theoretically associated with fostering growth (positive correlation) or interfering with adjustment (negative correlation), and (3) that based on existing literature there would be expectable age and sex differences in the findings. This study supports the usefulness of a set of Telophasic constructs for predicting adjustment, but indicates further refinement is needed in the measurement and operationalization of many of the constructs in order to clarify their relationships (individually and collectively) with rated adjustment. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)...