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6 - Reciprocal Effects of Mothers' Depression and Children's Problem Behaviors from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2009

By
Sara R. Jaffee  and
Richie Poulton
Edited by
Aletha C. Huston  and
Marika N. Ripke
Sara R. Jaffee
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Richie Poulton
Affiliation:
Director of Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago
Aletha C. Huston
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Marika N. Ripke
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
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Summary

Children whose mothers are depressed are at risk for a range of difficulties in childhood and adolescence, including emotional and behavioral problems, attachment and academic difficulties, and problems in self-regulation, peer relationships, and sleep regulation (see reviews by Cummings & Davies, 1994; Downey & Coyne, 1990; Goodman & Gotlib, 1999; Herring & Kaslow, 2002; Teti, Gelfand, & Pompa, 1990). In this chapter, we focus specifically on the association between mothers' anxious, depressed symptoms and children's emotional problems (e.g., anxious, depressed behavior, also called internalizing problems) and behavioral problems (e.g., aggressive, disruptive, undercontrolled behavior, also called externalizing problems). We refer to emotional and behavioral problems, collectively, as “problem behaviors.” The mechanisms by which mothers' depression has been hypothesized to influence children's problem behaviors include genetic transmission of risk for psychopathology, neurodevelopmental insult in the prenatal or perinatal periods, difficulties in parent–child interaction, and social stressors that may impinge on parent and child functioning alike (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999).

These hypotheses about the association between maternal depression and children's outcomes assume that maternal depression plays a causal role in the development of children's problem behaviors. However, relatively little research has considered the possibility that children's problem behaviors may be implicated in the etiology or maintenance of a mothers' depression, even though a sizeable body of literature exists to show how parents' behavior often changes in response to their children (Anderson, Lytton, & Romney, 1986; Bell & Harper, 1977; Bell & Chapman, 1986; Brunk & Henggeler, 1984; Buss, 1981; Grusec & Kuczynski, 1980; Lytton, 1990; Mink & Nihira, 1986; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Yarrow, Waxler, & Scott, 1971).

Type
Chapter
Information
Developmental Contexts in Middle Childhood
Bridges to Adolescence and Adulthood
 , pp. 107 - 129
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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