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Current and Past Maternal Depression, Maternal Interaction Behaviors, and Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms

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Abstract

Relations among past maternal depressive disorder, current depressive symptoms, current maternal interaction behaviors, and children’s adjustment were examined in a sample of 204 women and their young adolescent offspring (mean age = 11.86, SD = 0.55). Mothers either had (n = 157) or had not (n = 57) experienced at least one depressive disorder during the child’s life. Mothers and children participated in a problem-solving task, video-taped for later coding. Mothers with current depressive symptoms and those with histories of chronic/severe depressive disorders displayed fewer positive behaviors toward their children; mothers with current depressive symptoms also showed more negative behaviors with their children. The relation between mothers’ depression history and their behavior during the interaction with their child was partially mediated by mothers’ current mood state. Moreover, high levels of maternal negativity and low levels of positivity during the problem-solving task were related to children’s externalizing problems. Maternal positivity partially mediated the relation between maternal depression and children’s externalizing symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of providing parenting interventions for depressed mothers.

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Notes

  1. Students in full-time special education classes were excluded due to concerns about their being able to complete the battery of questionnaires, which required at least a fifth grade reading level.

  2. Demographic variables investigated as potential control variables included SES, race, mother’s age, and mother’s marital status. Because inclusion of these variables did not alter the findings, and these variables were not hypothesized to affect the relation between maternal depression and mothers’ interaction behaviors, they were trimmed from the models.

  3. Due to concerns about depressive bias in maternal reporting, these analyses were repeated using the Youth Self-Report version of the CBCL. Results were identical using the CBCL and YSR with the exception of the relation between maternal negativity and externalizing (YSR), which was a trend. We used the CBCL because parents’ report of externalizing behaviors tends to be more accurate than children’s report, and given the age of the sample, we expected more externalizing problems than internalizing problems.

  4. Child gender was significantly correlated with CBCL internalizing and externalizing scores, so gender was initially used as a control variable. Because its inclusion did not alter the results and because gender differences were not hypothesized, gender was trimmed from the final model.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Children’s Hospitals and Clinics, Minneapolis-St. Paul and the University of Michigan for providing support to the first author during completion of this project. This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH4545801; MH57822), NICHD GrantP30HD15052, and the William T. Grant Foundation (173096) awarded to the second author. We would all like to thank the parents and children who participated in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 4250 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA

    Cynthia J. Ewell Foster

  2. Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37203-5721, USA

    Judy Garber

  3. Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60626, USA

    Joseph A. Durlak

Authors
  1. Cynthia J. Ewell Foster
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  2. Judy Garber
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  3. Joseph A. Durlak
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Correspondence to Cynthia J. Ewell Foster.

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This work is derived from the first author’s dissertation, completed at Loyola University Chicago under the direction of the third author.

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Ewell Foster, C.J., Garber, J. & Durlak, J.A. Current and Past Maternal Depression, Maternal Interaction Behaviors, and Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 36, 527–537 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9197-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9197-1

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