Mothers' depressive symptoms and children's facial emotions: Examining the depression–inhibition hypothesis

Abstract

Vibrant expression of emotion is the principal means infants and young children use to elicit appropriate and timely caregiving, stimulation, and support. This study examined the depression-inhibition hypothesis: that declines in mothers' support as their depressive symptoms increase inhibit children's emotional communication. Ninety-four mothers and their 14- to 27-month-olds interacted in a university playroom. Based on microanalytic coding of discrete facial displays, results supported three components of the hypothesis. (a) As mothers' depressive symptoms increased, children displayed less facial emotion (more flat affect, less joy, less sadness, less negative). (b) Mothers' low emotional and behavioral support predicted children's low facial communication and mediated relations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's infrequent emotion. (c) Children who were passive with mothers behaviorally expressed emotion infrequently. Children's passivity mediated relations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's infrequent emotion displays. Contrary to modeling and contagion theories, mothers' facial displays did not mediate relations between their depressive symptoms and children's facial displays. Nor were the outcomes children experienced regulating their facial displays. Rather, findings suggest that, even when depressive symptoms are modest, young children inhibit emotion as mothers' depressive symptoms increase to withdraw from unresponsive mothers, which may adversely affect children's subsequent relationships and competencies.

Regulation of Jealousy Protest in the Context of Reunion Following Differential Treatment

“…A parallel process may apply in the present study where infants were tasked with interactive repair. Thus, consistent with the depression–inhibition hypothesis (Dix et al., ), it can be argued that in the process of recovery following DT, passivity may be an indicator of emotion dysregulation.…”

“…Finally, we considered outcomes in relation to mothers' depression symptoms. Research on infants' responses during DT found maternal depression associated with dampened expressions of distress (Hart & Behrens, in press; Hart, Field, Letourneau & Del Valle, ), and research on emotion regulation found these capacities diminished among children of depressed mothers (Dix et al., ; Manian & Bornstein, ; Maughan et al., ; Silk et al., ). These findings led us to expect that a similar pattern would be discernible in infants.…”

Mothers' early depressive symptoms predict children's low social competence in first grade: mediation by children's social cognition

“…Children may attribute such mother‐focused behavior to hostile intentions, focus processing on their own unmet needs (Hoffman, ), and develop representations dominated by coercive behavior and its short‐term effectiveness. Children, in turn, react with negative emotion (Maccoby & Martin, ), withdrawal (Dix, Meunier, Lusk, & Perfect, ; Yan & Dix, ), or increasingly coercive demands (Shaw et al., ), which focuses their processing on their own self‐oriented intentions, justifications for their negativity in mothers' negative intentions, and the necessity of coercion for eliciting maternal attention (Shaw et al., ).…”

Jealousy in Infants

“…Reduced contact with mother was especially apparent in infants of depressed mothers who also displayed intrusive interactive behavior during floor play (Hart et al 2003). In the context of maternal depression, infants' behavioral inhibition, facial inexpressiveness, and general passivity have been interpreted as indicators of regulatory maladaptation (Dix et al 2012;Feng et al 2008;Field et al 1986;Silk et al 2006). This interpretation was also applied to the flat pattern of response that was elicited in these infants in response to differential treatment.…”