Poster #140 - Fathers as Buffers to the Negative Influence of Maternal Depression on Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

The links between maternal affective disorders and children’s socioemotional development are well established (O’Connor et al., 2017). Effective parenting by fathers has the potential to mitigate such links (Vakrat, Apter-Levy, & Feldman, 2018). Studies have shown that children with susceptible temperaments are most impacted by environmental and familial factors, such as negative parental mood (Belsky & Pluess, 2009). However, no studies have yet examined whether fathers’ ability to buffer the negative influence of troubled mothers might be specific to the most susceptible, or emotional, children. The current study investigated the influence of parental depressive symptoms on children’s internalizing behaviors from early childhood (starting at 3 years) to late adolescence (18 years). We hypothesized that: 1) low paternal depression would buffer the influence of maternal depression on increases in children’s internalizing symptoms; 2) this interaction would only be present for temperamentally emotional children.

Participants included 169 mothers, 155 fathers, and 171 children (53% female) from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, followed over five assessment periods (T1-T5: 3-6 years; 7-9 years; 10-12 years; 13-15 years; 16-18 years). At T1, mothers and fathers reported on their depressive symptoms using self-report checklists (SCL-90) and on child emotionality using the EAS-2. Maternal perceptions of child internalizing symptoms were measured with the CBCL at all time points. A latent growth curve (LGC) was conducted to estimate longitudinal trends in children’s internalizing symptoms. Both linear and quadratic growth functions were tested. Next, maternal and paternal depressive symptoms, father reports of child emotionality, and their interactions, were entered as predictors of the LGC. Simple slope analyses probed the effect of interactions on the trajectories of internalizing symptoms; conditional values were set at low and high levels (1 SD below and above the mean) of the predictors.

Results revealed a significant association from the three-way interaction between maternal depression, paternal depression, and father reports of child emotionality to the linear slope of child internalizing symptoms (B=.34, p=.03). Figure 1 presents trajectories. At high levels of maternal depression, paternal depression, and father reports of child emotionality, children subsequently increased in internalizing symptoms (linear slope=2.31, p<.001). This corresponded to a 79.1% increase from age 5 to 11. When child emotionality was low, parents’ depressive symptoms were not associated with changes in children’s internalizing symptoms. Results were replicated after omitting families with non-present and non-reporting fathers (n=16).

Past research has found that paternal depression exacerbates the emotional costs of maternal depression to children’s healthy socioemotional development (Mezulis, Hyde, & Clark, 2004). The current results suggest that non-depressed fathers, likely by being warm and more involved parents, can also mitigate these costs (Thomas et al., 2006; Vakrat, et al., 2018). New to this study is that this effect is specific to emotionally temperamental children. Neither parents’ depression influenced non-emotional children, possibly because they were resilient. These results are consistent with the diathesis-stress model, which highlights the compounding risks of temperamental emotionality and negative familial influence on healthy child development. Remaining cognizant of both parents’ emotional health is important, especially when children are young.

Authors

• Daniel J. Dickson, Concordia University
  Presenting Author

• Lisa A. Serbin, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marie-Pier Paré-Ruel, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dale M. Stack, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author