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Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Maternal Behavior, and Toddler Internalizing Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model

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Abstract

Maternal depression relates to child internalizing outcomes, but one missing aspect of this association is how variation in depressive symptoms, including mild and moderate symptoms, relates to young children’s outcomes. The current study examined a moderated mediation model to investigate how maternal behaviors may mediate this association in the context of child temperament and gender. Mothers and toddlers completed a free-play/clean-up task in the laboratory. Mothers rated their depressive symptoms and their toddlers’ temperament and internalizing behaviors. Results indicated a significant indirect effect of maternal warmth on the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and toddler internalizing outcomes for boys with low negative emotionality. Toddler gender and temperament moderated the relation between maternal intrusiveness and toddler internalizing outcomes, but mediation was not supported. Results highlight the important interaction between child and maternal variables in predicting child outcomes, and suggest mechanisms by and conditions under which mild maternal depressive symptomatology can be a risk factor for toddler internalizing outcomes.

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Notes

  1. Overall, results using the original data were relatively consistent with those using the imputed data. Interaction effects remained significant in the same direction. The indirect effect remained significant (indirect effect = 0.005, SE = 0.001, 95 % CI [0.0003, 0.001].

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Acknowledgments

The project from which these data were derived was supported, in part, by a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (F31 MH077385) and a University of Missouri Department of Psychology Sciences Dissertation Grant granted to the second author, and a grant to Kristin Buss from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH075750). Portions of this project were presented at the biennial conference for the Society for Research in Child Development in Seattle, WA (April, 2013). We express our appreciation to the families and toddlers who participated in this project.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Alexandra C. Hummel & Elizabeth J. Kiel

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  1. Alexandra C. Hummel
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Correspondence to Alexandra C. Hummel.

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Hummel, A.C., Kiel, E.J. Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Maternal Behavior, and Toddler Internalizing Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 46, 21–33 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-014-0448-4

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