Parental Bonding among Individuals with Recurrent Depressive Disorder, and Normal Controls:A Comparative Study

Parental bonding is characterized by intense attachment between parents and children which contains the sense of trust, love, care, and affection. It has long been proposed that aspects of the parent-child relationship dispose the child to depression in adulthood. This study was undertaken to examine the parental bonding among individuals with recurrent depressive disorder and normal controls. The study was a cross sectional and the sample was recruited from July 2013 to Jan 2014 through consecutive sampling method. The sample was consisted of 30 patients with the diagnosis of recurrent depressive disorder as per ICD-10 and 30 normal controls. Age range for both groups was 18 to 50 years. Both groups were matched in terms of age, sex and education. To assess the seventy of depression Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and Parental Bonding Instrument and was used to assess the parental bonding in both the group. The two groups differed significantly in terms of mother and father care&protection. Low mother and father care and high mother and father protection was found in Recurrent Depressive Disorder (RDD) as compared to normal controls.