The Lausanne Trilogue Play within the clinical context: the relationship between interactive family pattern and children psychopathology.

Introduction: Studies emphasize the need to understand the link between the quality of the father-mother-child relationship and the psychopathological expression during the developmental age. In this context, the Lausanne Trilogue Play stands as an innovative approach to the developmental psychopathology, making it possible to understand mental disorders as results of environmental or parental failures in affective attunement and emotional contact between children and caregivers (Fivaz-Depeursinge, Corboz-Warnery, 1999). Aims: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the children psychopathology and the quality of the family interactive pattern. Our hypothesis is that specific psychopathological expression may be associated with specific family interactions. Material and methods: The sample is recruited at S.C.I.A.F. (Padua, Italy) and is composed by 137 families with children from 4 to 21 years old (mean age: 14 sd: 3,8). The patients present the following diagnosis: 11% affective disorder, 20% somatoform and stress-related syndromes, 11% anxiety syndromes, 7% impaired psychological development, 47% behavioral and emotional disorder, 7% environmental problems. All families performed the LTP the psycho-diagnostic assessment in order to observe family interactive dynamics. Results: Preliminary results show that only some diagnoses are associated with certain interactive features. In particular, the general linear model shows a positive effect of the factor “LTP-part” within the groups (Mauchly's W=.509, p=000). Specifically, “Behavioral and Emotional Disorder” and “Anxiety Syndromes” obtained worse results than other groups in the third part of LTP (interaction between all members) and in the fourth part (interaction between the parents, the child observes). Conclusions: The study confirms the importance of using LTP within the evaluation of interactive family dynamics during the diagnostic assessment and the role of the relational dimension in children’s symptom expression and vice versa, endorsing the importance of combining therapeutic work with children with intervention on parenting.