Relational closeness moderates the association between maternal overcontrol and children’s depressive symptoms.

Abstract

Though numerous studies have examined the relationship between parental overcontrol (OC) and child anxiety, few have examined the association between OC and children's depressive symptoms. However, there are conceptual reasons to believe that overcontrolling parenting may also be relevant to depressive symptomatology, as well as to anticipate that other aspects of the parent-child relationship may moderate the association between the two. In this study we examine the association between self-reported maternal OC and child depressive symptoms, as moderated by multiple indicators of closeness within the parent-child relationship. An ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of children (N = 106, M(age) = 10.27 years) and their mothers participated in this cross-sectional study. Mothers reported on their overcontrolling parenting and children reported on their depressive symptoms. Children and mothers participated in structured interviews that were analyzed for we-talk, a behavioral measure of closeness; they also self-reported their closeness. Results indicated that child we-talk, child self-reported closeness, and maternal we-talk moderated the association between maternal OC and child depressive symptoms, such that OC and depressive symptoms were positively associated only at low levels of relational closeness. The results provide initial evidence for an association between parental OC and child depressive symptoms, and point to the need for more research on the role of children's perceptions in moderating the association between parenting and child depressive symptoms.

Parent–Child Attunement Moderates the Prospective Link between Parental Overcontrol and Adolescent Adjustment

“…This framework also highlights the centrality of youth's perceptions of attunement. Consistent with this conceptualization, child‐reported (but not mother‐reported) parent–child closeness moderates the association between OC and depressive symptoms in middle childhood (Sichko, Borelli, Rasmussen, & Smiley, ).…”

“…This finding highlights that OC cannot be understood in isolation from its context (Darling & Steinberg, ). Maternal warmth, closeness, and child ethnicity each moderate the effects of OC on preschoolers' externalizing behaviors (Akcinar & Baydar, ), children's depression (Sichko et al., ), and adolescents’ affect (Mason et al., ), respectively.…”

Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms in a Chinese Low– and Middle– Income Sample: The Indirect Effects of Maternal Care and Adolescent Sense of Coherence

“…Moreover, depression is associated with negative consequences, including academic difficulties, interpersonal dysfunction, as well as health problems (Berndt et al, 2000; Zlotnick et al, 2000; Korczak and Goldstein, 2009), and it may persist into adulthood if left untreated (Aalto-Setälä et al, 2002). Many prior studies have demonstrated that family context and internal resources are potential factors associated with adolescent depression (Elovainio et al, 2012; Moksnes et al, 2012; Sichko et al, 2015).…”

Mother–child adrenocortical synchrony: Roles of maternal overcontrol and child developmental phase

“…The PCT is a standardized laboratory task used in prior investigations (see Borelli, Burkhart, Rasmussen, Smiley, & Hellemann, 2018;Borelli et al, 2015;Sichko, Borelli, Rasmussen, & Smiley, 2016;Smiley et al, 2016). It involves computer presentation of six 3-by 3-tile geometric puzzles adapted from the Block Design task in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (Wechsler, 1991).…”