Relationship Disorders Anxious and Tense Relationship Disorder
Interactions are tense, constricted, no sense of relaxed enjoyment or mutuality. Clinician perceives anxiety, tension.
- Sensitivity to cues by parent is extremely heightened
- Parent concerned freq. re:infant well being, behavior, development may be overprotective
- Physical handling, tense, awkward
- May have negative interactions but not primary
- Poor fit between infant’s temperament and activity level and that of parents
- Infant may be very compliant or anxious around parents
- Parent or infant shows anxious mood.
- Motr tension. Apprehension. Agitation
- Facial expressions. Quality of speech and vocalizations
- Parent and infant overreact. Escalation.
Psychological involvement
- Parent often misinterprets, responds inappropriately (e.g., feelings of failure or rejection in the parent when infant cries)