Objective Develop and pilot an Internet-facilitated cognitive-behavioral treatment intervention for depression, tailored to economically disadvantaged mothers of young children. Method Mothers (N = 70) of children enrolled in Head Start, who reported elevated levels of depressive symptoms, were randomized to either the eight-session, Internet-facilitated intervention (Mom-Net) or delayed intervention/facilitated treatment-as-usual (DI/TAU). Outcomes were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996); the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9; Spitzer et al., 1999), Behavioral Observations of Parent-Child Interactions using the Living in Family Environments coding system (LIFE; Hops, Davis, & Longoria, 1995); and the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding Systems (DPICS; Eyberg, Nelson, Duke, & Boggs, 2005); the Parent Behavior Inventory (PBI; Lovejoy, Weis, O’Hare, & Rubin, 1999); and the Parenting Sense of Competence scale (PSOC; Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman, 1978). Results Mom-Net demonstrated high levels of feasibility as indicated by low attrition and high program usage and satisfaction ratings. Participants in the Mom-Net condition demonstrated significantly greater reduction in depression, the primary outcome, at the level of both symptoms and estimates of criteria-based diagnoses over the course of the intervention. They also demonstrated significantly greater improvement on a questionnaire measure of parent satisfaction and efficacy as well as on both questionnaire and observational indices of harsh parenting behavior. Conclusions Initial results suggest that the Mom-Net intervention is feasible and efficacious as a remotely delivered intervention for economically disadvantaged mothers.

Conducted a multimethod assessment consisting of behavioral observations as well as mother- and adolescent-report measures to compare the family environments of depressed adolescents to those of healthy, nondistressed adolescents. Each group consisted of 17 girls and 9 boys. Depressed adolescents and their mothers described their families as being less supportive and more conflictual than did their counterparts in comparison families. Depressed adolescents also demonstrated less problem-solving behavior, and both they and their mothers demonstrated less facilitative and more depressive behavior during observed problem-solving interactions. In contrast, neither depressed adolescents nor their mothers demonstrated higher rates of aggressive behavior relative to their counterparts in the families of healthy adolescents. The multimethod assessment allowed us to draw firm conclusions regarding the role of supportive family interactions. Hypotheses regarding the inconsistency between self-report and observational data with regard to family conflict are addressed.

Despite recent suggestions that depression can be conceptualized as a disorder of affect regulation, relatively little research has focused on affect regulation skills in depressed individuals. This paper investigated whether depressed adolescents (N = 25) differ from nondepressed adolescents (N = 25) on two indices of affect regulation (i.e., duration of negative affective states and reciprocity of maternal negative affect) as well as whether these indices are related to microsocial family interactional processes. Analyses revealed that depressed teens differed from their nondepressed peers with regard to duration of negative affective states but not in their likelihood of reciprocating negative affect. Additionally, indices of adolescent affect regulation were related to family interactional processes. Duration of depressive affect was positively associated with maternal display of facilitative behavior contingent on adolescent depressive behavior. Duration of aggressive behavior was inversely related to maternal problem-solving responses to aggressive behavior. Finally, adolescent reciprocity of maternal depressive and aggressive behaviors was strongly associated with mothers' reciprocity of adolescents' negative affective behavior.

This study evaluated the putative mediating mechanisms of an Internet-facilitated cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) intervention for depression tailored to economically disadvantaged mothers of preschool-age children. The CBT mediators were tested across two previously published randomized controlled trials which included the same measures of behavioral activation, negative thinking, and savoring of positive events. Trial 1 included 70 mothers with elevated depressive symptoms who were randomized to either the eight-session, Internet-facilitated intervention (Mom-Net) or to treatment as usual. Trial 2 included 266 mothers with elevated depressive symptoms who were randomized to either Mom-Net or to a motivational interviewing and referral to services condition. Simple mediation models tested each putative mediator independently followed by tests of multiple mediation that simultaneously included all three mediators in the model to assess the salient contributions of each mediator. The pattern of results for the mediating effects were systematically replicated across the two trials and suggest that behavioral activation and negative thinking are salient mediators of the Mom-Net intervention; significant mediating effects for savoring were obtained only in the simple mediation models and were not obtained in the multiple mediation models.

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