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Research database: Psychosemiotic Analysis of Non-Complete Sentences of Mothers Suffering from Schizophrenia

Version 2 2021-11-26, 14:35
Version 1 2021-10-16, 07:40
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posted on 2021-11-26, 14:35 authored by Anna ShvedovskayaAnna Shvedovskaya, Olga RusakovskayaOlga Rusakovskaya, Marina Novikova-GrundMarina Novikova-Grund, Svetlana AndrianovaSvetlana Andrianova
With the aim to investigate the attitude of mothers suffering from schizophrenia towards their children we used psychosemiotic analysis and the procedure of biclustering of the semi-structured parental essay in the incomplete-sentence form (test «Рarental composition») of 30 mothers of the clinical group and 30 mentally health mothers. Statistical analysis confirmed the relevance of psychosemiotic parameters. The procedure of biclustering showed that three of the lists of binary parameters show regular combinations that differ in healthy and ill mothers. One of the combinations is found only in the texts of ill mothers and describes a weak parent who cannot withstand ambivalence and sees his child in the perspective of an abstract future. Another combination occurs in the texts of only healthy mothers and describes a parent who is able to withstand ambivalence and perceives the child as a person with his own feelings in the present time.

Funding

RFBR and Moscow city Government grant number 18-013-00921 А

History

Research questions / Hypotheses

What are statistically significant differences in semantic operational parameters between mothers suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and mentally health mothers?

Research aim

To investigate the attitude of mothers suffering from schizophrenia towards their children with psychosemiotic approach and to examine the procedure of biclustering relating to quantitative and qualitative analysis in psychology.

Participants / Sample description

1. N=60. 2. Age of mothers of the clinical group: Mean=39.3; Med=38; Min=28; Max=59; Std. Dev. = 7.54. Age of mothers of the control group: Mean=35.06; Med=36; Min=26; Max=45; Std. Dev. = 4.97. 3. Women (N=60) 4. Clinical group (N1=30); control group (N2=30) 5. Participants of the clinical group were recruited from patients of the women’s ward of Moscow psychiatric hospital, where they were currently hospitalized in a psychotic state. All participants had children 0-18 y.o. According to ICD 10 the subjects had the following diagnoses: F 20.014 – 14; F 20.006 – 4; F 20.024 – 3; F 20.004 – 2; F 25.21 – 7. 17 women (56,6%) had a disability group (the second group in all cases) - due to the mental disorder. In 4 cases mother’s parental rights were restricted by the court because of «dangerousness of the child staying with the parent». 26 mothers of the clinical group lived with their children and took part in their upbringing.

Apparatus and materials

The semi-structured parental essay in the incomplete-sentence form (test «Рarental composition») [Shvedovskaya AA. Ispol'zovanie metodiki «Roditel'skoe Sochinenie» v Diagnostike Detsko-Roditel'skih Otnoshenij v Doshkol'nom Vozraste. Psiholog v detskom sadu (Psychological Assessment). 2005;4:70-103]

Experimental design

In a departure from the standard procedure, at the first stage we identified each conclusion for each case with the following semantic operational parameters: «Agent: Mother», «Agent: Child», «Agent: Third parties», «Non-agent»б «Internal predicates relating to the child», «Internal predicates relating to the mother»б «the Past», «the Present», «the Future», «Emotional coloring of conclusion», «Negative emotional coloring of conclusion», «Concrete conclusion», «Paralogical or unequal conclusion», «Subject of mental disorder in conclusion». According to conclusions of four sentences: «She would rather (he)...», «I get awfully irritated when...// I don’t like that he/she...// I like it when we are with my child...» three significant semantic parameters were detected: opposition, situatedness, time perspective.

Statistical methods

Descriptive statistics and Mann Whitney U test. Analyses were conducted using Statistic 13.3. The qualitative analysis of conclusions. The method of biclustering, with which the matrix was manually processed, was reduced to the following recursive procedure. Each parameter-column was selected sequentially. After that, the rows of the matrix were moved so that at the top of the column there were only ones for this parameter, and at the bottom – only zeros. If, as a result of these movements, the regularity of the arrangement of zeros and ones was found in some other column, then both columns were evaluated as relevant and were subjected to further recursive processing. Columns that never showed regularity when moving rows were dropped as irrelevant. After obtaining identical clusters, the probability of their accidental coincidence was determined.

Results

The statistical analysis proved relevance of such detected parameters as “Agent: Mother”, “Agent: Child”, “Internal predicate related to mother”, “Internal predicate related to child”, “Time perspective: Present”, “Time Perspective: Future”, “Emotional coloring of conclusion”, “Negative emotional coloring of conclusion”, “Concrete conclusion”, “Subject of mental disorder in conclusion”. On finishing the procedure of biclustering the three parameters from the seven, singled out heuristically, were considered relevant: opposition, quality/situatedness, grammatical time. Four clusters were derived from these data.

Quantitative analysis results

  • Results file is attached

Ethics Committee Approval Certificate

  • No Ethics Committee Approval Certificate

Research Pre-registration Protocol

  • No Research Pre-registration Protocol

Affiliation

Moscow State University of Psychology and Education; V. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology; N.A. Alexeev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital 1