No abstract

To examine correlates of maternal depressive symptoms in a diverse, national sample of mothers whose kindergarten-aged children attended a Head Start program. Design and Participants: A cross-sectional study of 5820 mothers was conducted during their child's kindergarten year. Main Outcome Measure: Rates of maternal depressive symptoms were assessed by a validated 3-item depression screen. Results: The ethnic makeup of the group of mothers was non-Hispanic white, 46%; African American, 30%; Hispanic, 13%; American Indian, 6%; Asian American, 1%; and other, 4%. The mean (SD) age of the mothers was 30.1 (5.55) years, 57% were unemployed, and 68% had at least a high school diploma or had earned a high school equiva-lency diploma. More than 40% of the mothers screened positive for depressive symptoms. The strongest associations after controlling for several biological and demographic variables were maternal chronic health problem (adjusted odds ratio, 2.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.98-3.87), homelessness (adjusted odds ratio, 2.00; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-2.77), and lowest income level (adjusted odds ratio, 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.30-1.88). Conclusions: Depressive symptoms were common among mothers of young children in this national sample. Interventions must be targeted at alleviating maternal depressive symptoms by decreasing poverty, providing support programs for single parents, and establishing accessible and affordable medical care for all parents and their children. Primary care physicians can play a key role in early identification and intervention.

Social competence has been suggested to serve a protective function in emotional functioning and may compensate for some deleterious experiences. This study found that adherence to family routines and older fathers were significant predictors of preschool social competence. The subjects were 91 black children enrolled in a metropolitan Head Start program who were rated for social competence by their teachers.

This research examines variations in parenting and its effects on child cognitive outcomes across Latino subgroups from a national sampling that utilized a subset of 995 former Head Start Latino parents and children. Comparisons of the Parenting Dimension Inventory scaled scores revealed Latino subgroup differences on nurturance and consistency. Puerto Rican parental caregivers scored higher on nurturance and consistency than Mexican Americans and El Salvadorans. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed a positive relationship between responsiveness to child inputs and higher academic achievement scores for each Latino subgroup. Examination of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement also revealed a main effect of Latino subgroup differences. Findings suggest that there exist intracultural variations in parenting and academic achievement within the Latino population and confirm previous findings that parenting is related to positive child cognitive outcomes.