Abstract
The social interactions of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their preschool-age children were observed and mothers' perceptions of child behavior assessed. Depressed mothers, as a group, exhibited more negative behavior than controls; however, no differences were found for maternal positive behavior or contingent responding. There was a high degree of reciprocity between child and mother behavior in both groups and there was a trend for children of the depressed mothers to be more negative than the control children. The results with cognitive measures were consistent with depressive realism in perception of social interactions: Depressed mothers recalled more negative child behavior than nondepressed mothers; however, these perceptions paralleled the observed interactions. Overall, the results suggest that maternal depression is associated with negative parent-child interactions and more negative, albeit fairly accurate, perceptions of child behavior.
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This study is based on portions of a doctoral dissertation completed in the Department of Psychology at the University of Iowa. I appreciate the guidance of my advisors Michael O'Hara and Donald K. Routh and committee members Leonard Feldt, John Knutson, and Sue Rosner.
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Lovejoy, M.C. Maternal depression: Effects on social cognition and behavior in parent-child interactions. J Abnorm Child Psychol 19, 693–706 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00918907
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00918907