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Maternal Depression and Youth Internalizing and Externalizing Symptomatology: Severity and Chronicity of Past Maternal Depression and Current Maternal Depressive Symptoms

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Abstract

Maternal depression is a well-documented risk factor for youth depression, and taking into account its severity and chronicity may provide important insight into the degree of risk conferred. This study explored the degree to which the severity/chronicity of maternal depression history explained variance in youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms above and beyond current maternal depressive symptoms among 171 youth (58 % male) ages 8 to 12 over a span of 3 years. Severity and chronicity of past maternal depression and current maternal depressive symptoms were examined as predictors of parent-reported youth internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, as well as youth self-reported depressive symptoms. Severity and chronicity of past maternal depression did not account for additional variance in youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms at Time 1 beyond what was accounted for by maternal depressive symptoms at Time 1. Longitudinal growth curve modeling indicated that prior severity/chronicity of maternal depression predicted levels of youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms at each time point when controlling for current maternal depressive symptoms at each time point. Chronicity of maternal depression, apart from severity, also predicted rate of change in youth externalizing symptoms over time. These findings highlight the importance of screening and assessing for current maternal depressive symptoms, as well as the nature of past depressive episodes. Possible mechanisms underlying the association between severity/chronicity of maternal depression and youth outcomes, such as residual effects from depressive history on mother–child interactions, are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The CBCL internalizing scale is comprised of two subscales: Anxious Depressed and Withdrawn Depressed. The internalizing scale was included in the analyses in order to capture a broader range of psychopathology that may predate depressive symptoms in youth. In order to make sure the results were not driven by anxious symptoms specifically, all analyses were run using the two subscales in place of the internalizing scale. The internalizing scale and the subscale results did not differ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Erin E. O’Connor, David A. Langer & Martha C. Tompson

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  1. Erin E. O’Connor
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  2. David A. Langer
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  3. Martha C. Tompson
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Correspondence to Erin E. O’Connor.

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Funding

The current work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (MH066077, PI: Martha C. Tompson, PhD; MH082861, PI: Martha C. Tompson, PhD;).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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O’Connor, E.E., Langer, D.A. & Tompson, M.C. Maternal Depression and Youth Internalizing and Externalizing Symptomatology: Severity and Chronicity of Past Maternal Depression and Current Maternal Depressive Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45, 557–568 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0185-1

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