Mother‐Child Interaction Quality as a Partial Mediator of the Roles of Maternal Depressive Symptomatology and Socioeconomic Status in the Development of Child Behavior Problems. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group

Abstract

This investigation examined the relation between maternal depressive symptomatology and the development of externalizing behavior problems in children by incorporating mother-child interaction quality into a series of models. A representative sample of 376 first-grade boys and girls (mean age = 6.52) from diverse backgrounds (234 from the lowest 2 socioeconomic classes) and their mothers completed an interaction task designed to measure the quality of mother-child interaction. Latent variable structural equations analyses revealed that mother-child interaction quality partially mediated the relation between maternal depressive symptomatology and child behavior problems even when the effects of socioeconomic status on both variables were taken into account. Although this model held for boys, girls, and Caucasians, the relation between maternal depression and interaction quality was not significant for African-Americans. Further investigation is required to understand the lack of generalizability of the model to African-American mother-child dyads.

Relationship Between Life Events and Psychosomatic Complaints During Adolescence/Youth: A Structural Equation Model Approach

“…In our study, family context variables seem more important protecting against the effects of undesirable LEs than social support and peers. This is consistent with the previously published data [36], showing that the lack of nurturance and family related problems contribute to maladjustment and, as a consequence, in health related problems [37].…”

Interaction Effects between Maternal Lifetime Depressive/Anxiety Disorders and Correlates of Children’s Externalizing Symptoms

“…Second, results suggest an important contribution of mother-child relationship, thus converging with previous findings (Elgar et al 2007;Fendrich et al 1990;Harnish et al 1995) and theoretical models (Van Doesum et al 2005). However, in this study, mothers' caring behaviors but not punitive behaviors, were associated with a higher score of self-reported externalizing symptoms in children of lifetime depressed/anxious mothers.…”

“…In addition, another dimension of parent-child relationship, parental nurturance or warmth, is shown to mediate the association between parental depression symptoms and children's externalizing problems (Elgar et al 2007;Harnish et al 1995). These findings suggest that some dimensions of the parent-child relationship (e.g., punitive and caring behaviors) may play a central role in the association between parental psychopathology and children's externalizing disorders (Deater-Deckard and Dodge 1997;Lahey et al 1999).…”

“…Although relatively few studies investigated the mechanisms underlying the association between parental depressive/anxiety disorders and youth externalizing disorders, researchers generally agree about the main contribution of three family characteristics: parent-child relationship, family cohesion and marital satisfaction (Elgar et al 2007;Fendrich et al 1990;Harnish et al 1995). Regarding the quality of parent-child relationship, parent-child discord (e.g., arguing, fighting) as well as parental rejection are found to contribute to the development of disruptive disorders in children of depressed parents (Fendrich et al 1990).…”

Low-Level Symptoms of Depression in Mothers of Young Children are Associated with Behavior Problems in Middle Childhood

“…For example, in other studies, maternal depressive symptoms predicted externalizing behaviors in samples ranging from 30 months of age to age 12 [33][34][35]. Other research suggests that maternal depression is linked Logistic regression in MPlus using full information maximum likelihood with robust standard errors adjusted for number of adults in the home, maternal age and level of education, child race, gender, and emotion regulation at 14 months, family income, EHS program assignment and maternal depressive symptomatology when outcome was measured (child age 11 years) a P \ .01…”