Poster #149 - Preschoolers’ Attachment Security Moderates the Link Between Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Children’s Prosocial Comforting

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

The nature of the link between maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) and children’s prosociality is unclear, with studies reporting mixed results (e.g., Cummings et al., 2005; Johnson et al., 2013). Two factors may account for this inconsistency. First, many studies combine different prosocial behaviors into a single score, despite evidence that they are distinct (Dunfield et al., 2011; Svetlova et al., 2010). Second, no studies examining this link have taken into account parent–child relationship quality, despite theoretical reasons for doing so. This study examined how MDS predict children’s observed helping, sharing, and comforting behaviors, and whether these links depend upon the security of children’s attachment to mother. We hypothesized that MDS would be negatively associated with children’s comforting, but that the link would be attenuated by their attachment security (AS). We had no hypotheses regarding helping and sharing.

Method: Participants were 137 low-income mother–child dyads recruited from Head Start centers in Baltimore, MD. MDS were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). Child AS was scored on a 7-point scale using the MacArthur Preschool Strange Situation Procedure (Cassidy et al., 1992). To elicit helping behavior, children encountered three 45-second situations in which a female adult experimenter required help (e.g., couldn’t reach tape she’d dropped). To elicit sharing, children encountered three 90-second situations in which the same experimenter wanted resources (e.g., the child had cookies but the experimenter had none). To elicit comforting behavior, children were presented with three 120-second situations in which the same experimenter expressed distress over an event (e.g., spilling water on her drawing). All situations were standardized with a script; child responses were videotaped and coded for prosocial behavior.

Results: Moderation analyses with relevant covariates were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS v24 (Hayes, 2013). There was no significant main effect of MDS on any prosocial outcomes and no significant MDS x AS interaction in predicting helping or sharing. However, a significant interaction emerged when examining children’s comforting behavior. Using the Johnson-Neyman technique (e.g., Hayes & Matthes, 2009), we found that MDS were negatively related to child comforting when child AS was more than 1.85 SDs below the mean. Conversely, MDS were positively related to child comforting when child AS was more than 1.13 SDs above the mean (Figure 1).

Discussion: These results underscore the importance of considering parent–child relationship quality when examining how parental characteristics such as mental health influence child outcomes. Moreover, findings support expectations that it is comforting that is particularly affected by the combination of MDS and SA. Attachment theory and evidence suggest that secure (but not insecure) children have a secure-base script (i.e., a mental schema in which distress is met with comfort) that promotes comforting behavior (Gross et al., 2017). It could be that when children with secure-base scripts are more exposed to others’ distress (i.e., when facing more maternal depressive symptoms), this script is more easily accessible or more readily enacted Alternate explanations and clinical implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Bonnie Brett, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Jacquelyn Gross, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica A Stern, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jude Cassidy, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland-College Park
  Non-Presenting Author