Poster #10 - The impacts of parenting and maternal depression on children’s episodic memory ability: A longitudinal investigation

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

Research has indicated age-related improvements in episodic memory across development (Bauer, 2007). However, relatively little research has focused on investigating individual differences in memory and factors contributing to these differences. Given the extensive impact of early caregiving on brain and cognitive development (Belsky & de Haan, 2011), parenting and maternal depression are two factors that may contribute to differences in memory ability in children. Parenting behaviors, including maternal verbal support, are related to children’s autobiographical memory, a subtype of episodic memory for events organized around the self (Larkina & Bauer, 2010). Maternal depression has been shown to impact parenting (Lovejoy et al., 2000). Furthermore, research indicates that parenting and depression impact cognitive processes related to memory, including executive function (Hughes et al., 2013; Landry et al., 2014). Although parenting and depression have diverse impacts on development, research is needed to understand the selective impacts of these factors on children’s memory. The present study investigated the influences of early and concurrent parenting and a lifetime history of maternal depression on children’s memory ability. A total of 97 children and their parents participated in a longitudinal study that examined development from preschool age (Time 1 (T1): 3-5 years) to school-age (approximately three years later, Time 2 (T2)). At T1 and T2, children and their parents completed tasks from the Teaching Tasks Battery (Egeland et al., 1995) and positive (support, positive affectivity) and negative (hostility, intrusiveness, negative affectivity) parenting scores were derived based on observational parenting scores. At T1 and T2, parents completed the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (First et al., 1996) and lifetime history of maternal depression was indicated as absent (n = 40) or present (n = 57). At T2, children completed two episodic memory tasks, a source memory task (adapted from Ghetti et al., 2011) and a feature binding task (Lorsbach & Reimer, 2005). A composite episodic memory score was created from these tasks. Findings indicated greater T1 positive parenting (r=0.34, p<.001) was related to higher T2 memory scores, while greater T1 negative parenting (r=-0.26, p<.01) was related to lower T2 memory scores. T2 observed parenting was not related to children’s memory at T2. A one-way ANOVA revealed that children of depressed mothers had significantly lower memory scores (M= - 0.40, SD=1.58) than children of non-depressed mothers (M=0.48, SD=1.52; F(1, 95)=5.83, p=.018). Furthermore, a linear regression entering all parenting measures and depression as predictors indicated that after controlling for influences due to child T2 age and T1 general cognitive ability, T1 positive parenting (B=0.55, SE=0.19, p=.006) and maternal depression (B= - 0.19, SE=0.30, p=.046) remained significant predictors of T2 memory. Results suggest that early positive parenting is important for memory development and that children’s memory is adversely impacted by maternal depression. These results elucidate two factors that may contribute to individual differences in memory in childhood and also add to the body of literature suggesting that early parental care is critical to the developing child.

Authors

• Morgan Botdorf, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Louise Blankenship, SRCD Executive Branch Fellow, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lea R Dougherty, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tracy Riggins, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author