Children of depressed mothers: Communication and coping

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Parental depression presents a significant risk for psychopathology in offspring of depressed parents. Early adolescence may be an especially important developmental period to study parent-child interactions in families of depressed parents, as this developmental period is associated with increasing rates for depression and the emergence of a strong gender difference in risk for depression. To better understand the mechanisms underlying this transmission of parental depression, the proposed study will use a global coding system to compare videotaped interactions between depressed mother-child dyads and non-depressed mother-child dyads. Mothers and children will engage in two 15-minute videotaped discussions, one of which will focus on a pleasant activity they have recently shared, and a second around a mutually agreed-upon family stress associated with depression. The interactions will be coded with the Iowa Family Interaction Rating System for individual and dyadic variables in both mothers and adolescents. Associations between the mothers' diagnostic status, [fathers' depressive symtoms, marital conflict,] communication variables, and adolescents' outcomes will be examined. Moreover, the role of stress and coping in the relationship between mothers and adolescents will be examined by looking at associations between communication styles and coping responses, as well as the relationship between coping responses and child functioning. Results of this study will inform future preventive interventions with families to help reduce the incidence of depression and other disorders in adolescent offspring of depressed mothers.