Margaret Gasparik, Verrazzano Class of 2020, completed major in Psychology
I
began my undergraduate degree at CSI in Psychology, which was something that my
heart was always set on doing. I have always felt a desire to help others and
hoped that would translate into becoming some form of a social service provider
down the line. During my junior year, I received an employment offer from the
New York Foundling where I am still working. Here, I offer home visits to
families that are identified as “at-risk”, meaning they are faced with various
life stressors like poverty or domestic violence. I meet with these families on
a regular basis for around three years and educate them on their child’s
development, help facilitate positive interaction among the family, and reach
different goals that are set every six months. I definitely stumbled upon a
career choice that was right up my alley. However, I also knew that this could
present itself as a great research opportunity as well.
I was intrigued by one of the first families I worked with, as their story was very complex. The mother was recently divorced after a twenty-year marriage, where she was a victim of domestic violence. She was granted custody of her three children and recently gave birth to another child. The divorce and its impact created feelings of depression within the mother. Together, we worked on getting her into individual and family therapy, where she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
However, it was clear that her newborn’s own development was being impacted as well as the parent-child interaction. After noting this, I thought back to previous research that I read regarding the impact a mother’s mental health may have on their child’s development. I then came up with the idea to continue to monitor the child’s development and parent-child interaction, as well as the mother’s involvement in therapy and her self-reported moods. While the program I work for already conducts developmental screenings to monitor development and records parent-child interaction, I wanted to combine that with the mother’s involvement in therapy to see if increased involvement carried over to improved child development. Doing so would allow for greater effectiveness in my work, as I would know how to better assist families affected by mental illness.
When this observational study began a year ago, the mother was forty years old and the child was a month old. I utilized the Ages and Stages Questionnaire/Social-Emotional (ASQ-3/ASQ-SE) to conduct the developmental screenings. The ASQ-3 was conducted bi-monthly to measure the child’s physical development, while the ASQ-SE was completed three times to measure the child’s social and emotional development. Self-report was utilized to record the mother’s involvement in therapy, along with her moods. I utilized the Home Visiting Rating Scale (HORVS) to help measure parent-child interaction.
Surprisingly, everything went smoothly. I did not have to do anything extra with the family, as all of these tasks are included in my job description. I chose to cut off the observation after a year because that was able to supply an ample amount of data to make my conclusion. With the mother’s increased involvement in therapy, her mood increased. She was able to establish a stronger bond with her infant, who got back on track developmentally.
Conducting this study pushed me to think at a deeper level and look into surrounding, environmental factors that could affect a child. It provided me with greater knowledge surrounding the impact a caregiver’s mental health may have on a child, which will greatly benefit my current line of work.
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