Authors: Chrystyna D Kouros Judy Garber
Publish Date: 2010/07/06
Volume: 38, Issue: 8, Pages: 1069-1081
Abstract
The current prospective study investigated transactional relations between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s depressive and externalizing symptoms Participants included 240 children M age = 1186 years SD = 056 539 female and their mothers who were part of a 6year longitudinal study Measures of maternal depression Beck Depression Inventory child depression Children’s Depression Inventory and children’s externalizing symptoms Youth SelfReport Form were assessed annually Data analyses using dynamic latent difference score structural equation models indicated that the observed relations between mothers’ and adolescents’ symptoms were stable across the 6 years Higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms predicted subsequent elevations in children’s depressive symptoms and in their externalizing problems over time Among mothers with high initial levels of depression children’s depressive symptoms predicted subsequent declines in mothers’ depressive symptoms Children’s externalizing problems were not related to subsequent change in maternal symptomsThis work was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health R29 MH454580 K02 MH66249 NICHD Grant P30HD15052 and a Faculty Scholar Award 121488 and grant 173096 from the William T Grant Foundation Chrystyna D Kouros was supported in part from an NIMH training grant T32MH18921 during preparation of this manuscript We appreciate the cooperation of the Nashville Metropolitan School District Drs Binkley and Crouch and we especially thank the parents and children who participated in the project
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