Parenting as a Mediator of Associations Between Depression in Mothers and Children’s Functioning

• In Event: 3-060 - Maternal psychopathology and child development: the role of parenting practices

Integrative Statement

Building on the well-replicated findings linking depression in mothers with risk for the development of psychopathology in their children, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to the problem of how depression in mothers might affect their children. Understanding mechanisms in the developmental pathways of this transmission of risk would inform the design of more precise targets for preventive interventions than those that aim to reduce the risk (mothers’ depression). With the proposed talk, we respond to this need by presenting findings from our systematic review of evidence in support of one mediational model: that depression in mothers leads to mothers’ problematic parenting, which at least partially explains how mothers’ depression comes to be associated with adverse outcomes in children. We hypothesized that parenting behavior (coded as positive or negative) would be a significant mediator of the association between depression in mothers and social, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral outcomes in children. We used the strictest case for evaluating a mediational model by constraining the review to reports of studies with longitudinal designs, in which the temporal precedence of the measures was: depression > parenting > childhood outcome. We followed PRISMA guidelines and registered the review protocol (PROSPERO Registration # CRD42018093190). We conducted a literature search for all published studies through March 2018 on maternal depression, parenting, and childhood outcomes. The search methods resulted in 521 applicable studies, of which 28 met eligibility criteria. Of the included studies, mean sample size was 552 (SD = 1129); 48.64% of children were female; when the mediator was measured, children were a mean age of 54.9 months; when the outcome was measured, children were a mean age of 91.0 months; 86% of studies measured depression with rating scales; 75% measured parenting with an observational approach; most frequently reported child outcomes were symptoms of psychopathology (43% of studies), emotional/behavioral functioning (18%), cognitive (21%) or social (11%) functioning, and attachment classification (11%). In terms of support for mediation, higher depression was significantly associated with children’s lower cognitive and social functioning and more psychopathology (r = -.09, -.06, .16; higher depression was significantly associated with less positive parenting and more negative parenting (r = -.16 and .18, respectively); more positive parenting was significantly associated with children’s higher cognitive and social functioning and lower emotional/behavioral functioning (r = .23, .08, and -.10, respectively); more negative parenting was significantly associated with children’s lower social functioning and more psychopathology (r = -.17 and .21 respectively). For the symposium, we will also report findings from meta-analytic structural equation modeling to test directly the mediational model. We will interpret the findings in light of evidence for the theorized mediational pathway, findings being small yet statistically significant, and the well-developed theoretical models of how parenting might explain associations between depression in mothers and adverse outcomes in children. Finally, we will explore the implications of the evidence for modifying parenting (and specific aspects of parenting) as a way to minimize risk to children of mothers with depression.

Authors

• Sherryl Goodman, Emory University
  Presenting Author

• Hannah F.M. Simon, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christine Youngwon Kim, Emory University
  Non-Presenting Author