Parental loss and child guidance.

The personality development of a child depends to a considerable extent upon the influence of those who surround it in its early days, and principally upon the influences of its father and its mother. While this development may be adversely affected by circumstances in the relationships in normally constituted family life, nevertheless, the normal state may be considered as one in which both parents are exerting their separate and combined influences. During the routine investigation of ' Child Guidance ' cases, interest was aroused by the relative prevalence of some variation from the normal parental constitution, and this led to an inquiry into what part such a factor played in the etiology of behaviour and nervous disorders in childhood. It was, therefore, decided to study a consecutive series of unselected cases already dealt with at the Liverpool and District Child Guidance Clinic, and to collect the information relating to the parental state for the purpose of discovering the relative frequency with which there was some disturbance in the normal parental relationship and its influence, if any, on the children and their individual problems.