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Poster #166 - Maternal Depression and Socioemotional Skill Development in the Midwest Child-Parent Center Expansion

Thu, March 21, 9:30 to 10:45am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Socioemotional skills in early childhood predict a variety of longitudinal outcomes (e.g., educational attainment, health; Jones et al., 2015). Children affected by poverty and maternal depression are at increased risk for socioemotional problems (Cummings et al., 1994; Yoshikawa et al., 2012). The Child-Parent Center program (CPC), which provides comprehensive educational and support services to low-income children and families, has been linked to higher socioemotional functioning and parent involvement (Reynolds, 2000; Barnard, 2004). Over the last two decades, CPC has grown, and the present study updates previous findings. Three questions were addressed: (a) Does maternal depression predict base levels and growth in socioemotional skills in early childhood?; (b) Does CPC increase growth in socioemotional skills in early childhood?; and (c) Does CPC moderate the effect of maternal depression on socioemotional skill development?

The sample included 971 children and mothers who participated in CPC (n = 702) or were part of a propensity-score matched comparison group (n = 269) in a low-income area of Chicago in 2012-2013. Teachers completed the Teacher-Child Rating System (T-CRS; Hightower et al., 1986), rating children annually from Pre-K to Grade 2 in four socioemotional areas: task orientation, peer social skills, behavior control, and assertiveness. School records contained information on child race (59% African American, 18% White), sex (45% male), free lunch status (81% qualify), and native English-speaker status (40% native speakers).

Mothers were surveyed in year 1 (n = 891) or 2 (n = 80) of the study. Maternal depression risk was assessed with four items from the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1975). Responses were coded for the “presence” (1) or “absence” (0) of clinically-significant levels of each symptom and summed to create a depression-risk score. Mothers also reported on educational attainment (72% received a high school diploma or higher), single parent status (50% single mothers), and number of children living in their household (M = 2.69, SD = 1.60).

Using the R-package lavaan, mean-centered maternal depression risk and dummy-coded CPC preschool status were used to estimate socioemotional development over the first four years of intervention (Figure 1). In addition, the interaction between maternal depression risk and CPC intervention status was included to determine whether CPC moderated the effect of maternal depression on socioemotional development over time.

Models evinced adequate-to-good fit to the data (CFIs > .89, RMSEAs < .06, SRMRs < .04; Table 1). Results demonstrated that maternal depression risk was unrelated to base socioemotional skills, but predicted a significantly smaller slope for task orientation (b = -.21), peer social skills (b = -.32), and behavior control (b = -.39). Additionally, CPC showed positive effects on all four T-CRS subscales (bs from .15 to .34), predicting higher growth for children receiving at least one year of CPC. There was no evidence that CPC moderated the effect of maternal depression risk on T-CRS slope. Future analyses will examine effects on academic growth through Grade 2 and will seek to identify mechanisms of CPC intervention (e.g., heightened parent involvement, teacher professional development) to account for these positive effects.

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