The Meaning of the Child Interview: Making Sense of Parent-child Relationships

This handbook provides an accessible and thought-provoking guide to the Meaning of the Child Interview (MotC), a tool for understanding family relationships. It is edited and written by the MotC’s developer, with contributions from leading researchers and practitioners using the MotC in innovative contexts to support families. The MotC uses a semi-structured interview in which parents talk about their child, their relationship with their child, and their parenting. A process of analysis is outlined, including using the method to plan intervention, guide practice, and conduct research. This book offers a practical guide to applying attachment and caregiving research for child welfare and mental health professionals. Prior knowledge is not assumed, and many examples and summaries are used to assist the reader. By focussing upon how parents story their experience, and their child’s, in the context of ongoing challenges, this book facilitates practice based on understanding struggling parenting as a relationship situated in adversity, rather than an individual failing, worthy of blame.

Dr Ben Grey is a social worker, psychologist, and Principal Lecturer (for Research) on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Hertfordshire. He has conducted training, worked in, and published widely on attachment, parenting assessment, family court, and child-welfare practice, developing the Meaning of the Child Interview within this practice context.