1-077 - Exploring and Explaining the Effects of Maternal and Paternal Depression on Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Research has documented that children of depressed parents are at risk for developing a host of internalizing and externalizing problems; yet, many questions remain. What are the mechanisms through which parental depression affects children? Do mothers’ and fathers’ depression have distinct impacts? Does level of chronicity matter? This symposium aims to address these questions through four papers using longitudinal data and sophisticated methodology.

The first paper examines mothers’ maladaptive cognitive styles and children’s executive functions as potential mechanisms to explain the relationship between maternal depression and children’s internalizing problems. Path analyses partially supported mothers’ maladaptive cognitive styles as a mediator. The second paper uses structural equation modeling to examine differential effects of maternal and paternal depression on children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and to explore parenting behavior as a mediator. Both maternal and paternal depression predicted children’s internalizing problems, but parenting behavior was not a mediator of those relationships. Conversely, only paternal depression predicted children’s externalizing problems, with parenting behavior partially mediating the relationship. The third and fourth papers use semi-parametric group-based modeling techniques to identify distinct trajectories of maternal and paternal depression across several years of data in two different data sets. These papers also examine whether trajectory group membership predicts children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. The third paper found that adolescents in homes with a chronically depressed father were at highest risk for depression. On the other hand, the fourth paper found that chronic maternal depression was the most robust predictor of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Holly S. Schindler, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Depression and Preschoolers’ Anxious/Depressed Symptoms: Mediation by Maternal Rumination and Child Executive Function - Presenting Author: Xin Feng, Ohio State University; Seulki Ku, Ohio State University; Emma Hooper, Ohio State University; Qiong Wu, The Ohio State University

• The Influence of Paternal Depression on Well-Being in the Early- to Mid-Teenage Years - Presenting Author: Kevin Shafer, Brigham Young University; Douglas Wendt, Brigham Young University

• How Does the Chronicity of Parental Depressive Symptoms Influence Adolescent Psychosocial Maturity and Depression? - Presenting Author: Erin Kramer Holmes, Brigham Young University; Nate Stoddard, Brigham Young University

• Trajectories of Maternal and Paternal Depression: Chronicity, Co-Occurrence, and Consequences for Children’s Behavior Problems - Presenting Author: Holly S. Schindler, University of Washington