Poster #21 - The Effects of a Positive Emotion-Focused Dyadic Intervention on Mother-Child Relationship Quality

• In Event: Poster Session 12

Abstract

The interpersonal effects of maternal depression on offspring are key to understanding intergenerational transmission of depression and creating effective preventative interventions. Maternal depression is associated with less positive parenting (Lovejoy et al., 2000), and maternal depressive symptoms impact the frequency and quality of mother-child interactions (Kam et al., 2010). Disruptions in the quality of mother-child relationships are, in turn, associated with increased risk for depression in youth (Hammen et al., 2004). Affective neuroscience research has shown that maternal depression is linked to reduced activation in regions implicated in emotion processing. Additionally, parental depression is linked to low activation in circuits involved in reward and positive emotion, which can predict the emergence of depression (Kujawa & Burkhouse, 2017). These findings support upregulating positive emotions and promoting high quality mother-child relationships in at-risk youth as targets/mechanisms for preventing the development of emotional issues. The goal of the current project is to test the effects of Family Promoting Positive Emotions (F-PPE), a novel dyadic positive affect preventative intervention for mothers with depression and their children, on mother-child relationship quality and offspring emotional distress. We hypothesize that there will be an increase in mother-child relationship quality in the F-PPE group vs. a written information (WI) psychoeducation comparison group. We also hypothesize that relationship quality will mediate the effects of the intervention on offspring emotional distress.

We are currently recruiting mothers with elevated depressive symptoms and their 8- to 12-year-old children for a pilot study evaluating the efficacy of F-PPE. F-PPE includes elements from Family Group Cognitive Behavioral (Compas et al., 2009) and Positive Affect Treatment (Craske et al., 2019). After intake, participants are randomly assigned to either F-PPE or WI. Dyads assigned to F-PPE meet with a trained skills coach via Zoom for 8 weeks and complete activities and assignments focused on increasing positive emotions at the individual and dyadic level. Dyads in the WI group receive mental health newsletters via email for 8 weeks. To date, 34 families have completed the intervention (21 in WI, 13 in F-PPE) and a total of 50 families (25 in each condition) are planned to complete the study by the end of November.

At intake and post assessments, dyads complete PROMIS Emotional Distress (Depression, Anger, Anxiety) measures and quantitative (NIH Toolbox Maternal Relationship) and qualitative (Perception of Self and Family) measures of mother-child relationship quality. For the proposed analyses, two questions will be used from the qualitative measure 1) How would you describe your mother/child? 2) What do you like most about your mother/child? Responses will be coded for percent positive words using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software.

ANCOVAs will be used to examine group (FPPE vs. WI) x time (pre- and post-intervention) changes in mother-child relationship quality measures, controlling for age, gender, and emotional distress measures pre-intervention. Mediation analyses will be conducted using PROCESS v3.5 in SPSS (Hayes, 2013) to determine if mother-child relationship quality post-intervention, covarying for pre-intervention, mediates the effects of intervention on each emotional distress measure in youth.

Authors

• Alexandra Paige Argiros, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Anh Dao, Vanderbilt University

• Maria Granros, University of Chicago Illinois

• Katie L. Burkhouse, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University

• Autumn Kujawa, Vanderbilt University