A community sample of depressed women, their spouses, and their 8 to 12 year old children participated in a 6 month longitudinal study. Aspects of their mothers' depression, their marital relationship, and their parenting style were investigated in terms of their association with child adjustment. Fathers' marital relationship and their parenting style were also assessed to examine their association with child adjustment. Severity, duration, and chronicity of the mothers' depression were assessed at two time points. Similarly academic and nonacademic self-concept, mathematics and verbal achievement, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms of the children were assessed at both time points. Marital functioning (i.e., warmth, intimacy, and control) and parenting style (i.e., expressiveness, cohesion, and conflict) were assessed at Time 1 only for both mothers and fathers. Using data from Time 1, children were classified into adjustment groups (well or poorly adjusted). They were considered well adjusted if they functioned at or above normal limits on at least two out of the three domains investigated. Results indicated that less than 30% of the children of depressed mothers were classified as poorly adjusted. Analyses revealed that both chronicity and severity of maternal depression distinguished the child adjustment groups at Time 1. Child adjustment groups did not differ on any of the marital or parenting variables for either mothers or fathers. Longitudinal analyses indicated that mother-child cohesion at Time 1 predicted a decline in children's self-concept from Time 1 to Time 2. Specifically, the closer the relationship with the depressed mother at Time 1, the more negative the child's combined academic and nonacademic self-concept was at Time 2. These results are discussed in terms of attachment theory. Additionally, the merits of longitudinal research investigating variability within the families of depressed mothers are highlighted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/4240 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Kallos-Lilly, A. Veronica. |
| Contributors | Whiffen, Valerie, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 134 p. |
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