Based on a review of factors associated with Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD), this article attempts to show how an understanding of these factors can be helpful in instances of separation anxiety in missionary children (MKs). Using the example of one MK who exhibited major criteria for SAD diagnosis as a result of being sent away to boarding school, the article illustrates various psychodynamically and behaviorally oriented intervention strategies. The interventions are evaluated and implications suggested for parents of MKs, boarding school houseparents, and other staff, as well as mission administrators.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
American Psychiatric Association (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
3.
BlaggN. R., & YuleY. (1984). The behavioral treatment of school refusal: A comparative study. Behavior Research and Therapy, 22, 119–127.
4.
BowlbyJohn. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation, anxiety and anger.New York: Basic Books.
5.
BuffamC. J. (1985). The life and times of an MK.Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.
6.
FrancisG., LastC. G., & StraussC. C. (1987). Expression of separation anxiety disorder: The roles of age and gender. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 18, 82–89.
7.
FreudS. (1915). Instincts and their vicissitudes.London: Hogarth Press.
8.
FreudS. (1926). Inhibitions, symptoms and anxiety.London: Hogarth Press.
9.
Gittleman-KleinR., & KleinD. F. (1971). Controlled imipramine treatment of school phobia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 25, 204–207.
10.
GoddardR., & TuberS. (1989). Boyhood separation anxiety disorder: Thought disorder and object relations psychopathology as manifested in Rorschach imagery. Journal of Personality Assessment, 53, 239–252.
11.
KennedyW. A. (1965). School phobia: Rapid treatment of fifty cases. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 70, 285–289.
12.
KenneyB. J. (1983). The missionary family.Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.
13.
KleinM. (1948). Contributions to psycho-analysis, 1921–1945.London: Hogarth Press.
14.
KleinM. (1957). Envy and gratitude.London: Hogarth Press.
15.
LastC. G., HersenM., KazdinA. E., FinkelsteinR., & StraussC. C. (1987a). Comparison of DSM-III separation anxiety and overanxious disorders: Demographic characteristics and patterns of comorbidity. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 527–531.
16.
LastC. G., HersenM., KazdinA. E., FrancisG., & GrubbH. J. (1987b). Psychiatric illness in the mothers of anxious children. American Journal of Psychiatry, 12, 1580–1583.
17.
LastC. G., PhillipsJ. E., & StatfeldA. (1987). Childhood anxiety disorders in mothers and their children. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 18, 103–110.
18.
LazarusA. A. (1960). The elimination of children's phobias by deconditioning. In EysenckH. J. (Ed.) Behavior therapy and the neuroses (pp. 114–122). New York: Pergamon Press.
19.
MansdorfI. J., & LukensE. (1987). Cognitive-Behavioral psychotherapy for separation anxious children exhibiting school phobia. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 222–225.
20.
MontenegroH. (1968). Severe separation anxiety in two preschool children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 9, 93–103.
21.
PalmerS. E. (1990). Group treatment of foster children to reduce separation conflicts associated with placement breakdown. Child Welfare, 69, 227–238.
22.
PattersonG. R. (1965). A learning theory approach to the treatment of the school phobic child. In UllmanL. P., & KrasnerL. (Eds.) Case studies in behavior modification (pp. 279–285). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
23.
RutterM. (1974). Children of West Indian immigrants: Rates of behavioral deviance and of psychiatric disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 15, 241–262.
24.
SpitzR. A. (1946). Anaclitic depression: An inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood, II. The psychoanalytic study of the child, (Vol. 2, pp. 313–342). New York: International Universities Press.
25.
ThyerB. A., & Sowers-HoagK. M. (1988). Behavior therapy for separation anxiety disorder. Behavior Modification, 12, 205–233.
26.
WhiteF. J. (1983). Some reflections on the separation phenomenon idiosyncratic to the experience of missionaries and their children. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 11, 181–188.
