Novel Methodological Approaches for Advancing Study of the Intergenerational Transmission of Depression

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

A substantial literature indicates that maternal depression is associated with increased risk of depression in offspring. Influential models suggest that mechanisms of transmission include differences in parenting behaviors, mother-infant interactions, and neonatal neurobiology. However, important questions in this area remain, including: (1) whether depression and parenting behaviors are causally related; (2) how timing and measurement affect these associations; (3) how depressive symptoms affect real-time unfolding of interactions within dyads; and (4) whether observed differences in neurobiology mediate later offspring functioning. In this symposium, we employ a series of novel methodologies to examine these questions and advance our understanding of how depression is transmitted across generations. The first two papers examine nuances in the well-established association between depression and parenting. Specifically, the first paper uses a statistical approach from the causal inference literature to examine how timing and chronicity of postpartum depression affect sensitive parenting after balancing across an array of potential confounds. The second paper examines how distortions about parenting competence predict within-person changes in maternal depression. The third paper, which considers both the between- and within-person levels, examines how the dynamics of mother-infant interactions differ according to maternal depression. Finally, the fourth paper uses multiple levels of analysis to examine whether differences in neonatal brain development link maternal adverse experiences with infant negative emotionality. Collectively, these papers, each of which focuses on infancy as an important sensitive period, demonstrate how recent methodological advances can be leveraged to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of depression.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Emily Padrutt, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Individual Presentations

• Chronicity and Timing of Postnatal Depression and Parenting Sensitivity: A Causally Informed Approach - Presenting Author: Emily Padrutt, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Isabella Chask'a Stallworthy, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Meriah L. DeJoseph, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; SYLIA WILSON, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Daniel Berry, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Negative Self-Perceptions of Parenting Predict Postpartum Depression: A Longitudinal Analysis of Informant Discrepancies - Presenting Author: Mariann Howland, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver; Curt Sandman, University of California, Irvine; Laura Glynn, Chapman University

• Effects of Maternal Depressive Symptoms on Within-Dyad Behavioral Dynamics - Presenting Author: Jennifer Anne Somers, University of California - Los Angeles; Margot Barclay, University of California - Los Angeles; Gabrielle Rose Rinne, University of California - Los Angeles; Mary Coussons-Read, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; Chris Dunkel Schetter, University of California - Los Angeles; Steve Lee, University of California, Los Angeles

• Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences and Infant Subcortical Brain Volume - Presenting Author: Catherine Demers, University of Denver; Benjamin Hankin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Ella-Marie P. Hennessey, University of Denver; Mercedes Hoeflich Haase, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Maria M Bagonis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Sun Hyung Kim, University of North Carolina; John H. Gilmore, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Camille Hoffman, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Martin Styner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver