Poster #58 - Parental Attitudes About Child Mental Health: The Moderating Role of Parental Depressive Symptoms

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Children of depressed parents are at an increased risk for mental health problems (e.g., Connell & Goodman, 2002). Moreover, many children who need mental health treatment do not receive it, and children of parents with depression receive treatment at even lower rates. Although parents with higher levels of depression have been shown to have increased difficulties meeting the behavioral demands of parenting, less is known about the processes that underlie these functional difficulties. Further, perceptual biases have been implicated in people with depression. The current study examined parent’s perceptions of the severity and help needed for a child experiencing depression vs. a normative life stressor (NLS), and whether these relations were moderated by parents’ own depressive symptoms. Participants were 71 parents (M age=41.75, SD=7.17; 90.1% mothers) and their child (M age=13.65, SD=2.45; 56.3% female). Parents were 52.1% White, 28.2% African American, and 16.9% Latino. Parents reported on their own depressive symptoms on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D, Radloff, 1977). Parents also completed a modified version of the Friend in Need Questionnaire (Burns & Rapee, 2006), which included seven vignettes about children who were either experiencing depression or an NLS (e.g., break-up). After each vignette, parents rated their level of worry for the child, whether they thought the child was depressed, how long they thought the child would take to feel better, and whether they thought the child needed help from someone else to feel better. To account for the within-person effects of parents’ reports across the seven vignettes, a multilevel model was run. At level 1, each outcome was predicted by vignette type (depression vs. NLS), and parent depressive symptoms was added to level 2. Significant interactions between vignette type and parent depressive symptoms predicted parent-report of (1) identifying the vignette child as depressed, b= -.08, SE= .02, p<.001, (2) length of time for the child to feel better, b= -.03, SE= .01, p=.009, and (3) whether the child needed help from someone else, b= -.13, SE=.05, p=.01. Specifically, for the depressed vignettes, parents with higher depressive symptoms were less likely to identify the child as depressed, needing less time to feel better, and less likely to think the child needed help from someone else, as compared to the NLS vignettes. Only main effects of vignette type and parent symptoms predicted parents’ worry, with higher levels of worry predicted for the depression vignettes, b=1.17, SE=.07, p < .001, and at higher levels of parent symptoms, b=.03, SE=.01, p=.04. The results highlight important differences that parent depressive symptoms play in their perception of child mental health. Although depressive symptoms did not moderate parents’ level of worry for the child depending on vignette type, we did find evidence of potential perception bias in labeling depression in children, rating the severity of child depression, and deciding whether children should receive help. An awareness of these biases in depressed parents can help identify children who may be at an increased risk for not receiving mental health services.

Authors

• Michael Ovalle, Southern Methodist University
  Presenting Author

• Chelsea Carson, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Allie Yun, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Naomi Ekas, Texas Christian University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chrystyna Kouros, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author