Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:00:35.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Mothers' depressive symptoms and infant negative emotionality in the prediction of child adjustment at age 3: Testing the maternal reactivity and child vulnerability hypotheses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2013

Theodore Dix*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
Ni Yan
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Theodore Dix, 108 East Dean Keaton, Stop A2702, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

This study examined individual differences in how mothers' depressive symptoms affect children's early adjustment. It tested whether problematic development among children high in negative emotionality is accentuated by (a) maternal reactivity, the negative reactivity of mothers with depressive symptoms to difficult child characteristics; and (b) child vulnerability, the susceptibility of negatively emotional children to the negative parenting of mothers with depressive symptoms. Based on 1,364 participants from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, results showed that mothers' depressive symptoms predicted greater risk for adjustment problems at age 3 among children who as infants were high rather than low in negative emotionality. Increased risk was evident for behavior problems, low responsiveness, high separation distress, and low social competence. Mediational tests suggested that increased risk reflected maternal reactivity: the stronger mothers' depressive symptoms, the more they responded with negative parenting to children high in negative emotionality. The proposal that child vulnerability mediates the greater impact of mothers' depressive symptoms on negatively emotional children was verified only for separation distress. The results support the proposal that, when mothers are high in depressive symptoms, aversive characteristics of children and their behavior increasingly influence early adjustment and do so because they elicit negative parent behavior.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1992). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist 2–3, 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Anderson, K. E., Lytton, H., & Romney, D. M. (1986). Mothers' interactions with normal and conduct-disordered boys: Who affects whom? Developmental Psychology, 22, 604609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 11731182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (2007).Temperament, parenting and socialization. In Grusec, J. E. & Hastings, P. D. (Eds.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (pp. 153177). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bell, R. Q., & Chapman, M. (1986). Child effects in studies using experimental or brief longitudinal approaches to socialization. Developmental Psychology, 22, 595603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belsky, J., Friedman, S. L., & Hsieh, K. (2001).Testing a core emotion-regulation prediction: Does early attentional persistence moderate the effect of infant negative emotionality on later development? Child Development, 72, 123133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belsky, J., Hsieh, K., & Crnic, K. (1998). Mothering, fathering, and infant negativity as antecedents of boys' externalizing problems and inhibition at age 3 years: Differential susceptibility to rearing experience? Development and Psychopathology, 10, 301319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belsky, J., & Pluess, M. (2009). Beyond diathesis stress: Differential susceptibility to environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 885908.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Black, M. M., Baqui, A. H., Zaman, K., McNary, S. W., Le, K., El Arifeen, S., et al. (2007). Depressive symptoms among rural Bangladeshi mothers: Implications for infant development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 764772.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornstein, M. H., Hahn, C., & Haynes, O. M. (2010). Social competence, externalizing, and internalizing behavioral adjustment from early childhood through early adolescence: Developmental cascades. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 717735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boyce, W. T., & Ellis, B. J. (2005). Biological sensitivity to context I: An evolutionary–developmental theory of the origins and functions of stress reactivity. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 271301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2007). Externalizing problems in fifth grade: Relations with productive activity, maternal sensitivity, and harsh parenting from infancy through middle childhood. Developmental Psychology, 43, 13901401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2008). Infant temperament, parenting, and externalizing behavior in first grade: A test of the differential susceptibility hypothesis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 124131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, A. E., & Dix, T. (2009). Mothers' emotions and supportive behavior during interactions with toddlers: The role of child temperament. Social Development, 18, 647670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bugental, D. B., & Shennum, W. A. (1984). Difficult children as elicitors and targets of adult communication patterns: An attributional–behavioral transactional analysis. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 49(1, Serial No. 205).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calkins, S. D., Smith, C. L., Gill, K. L., & Johnson, M. C. (1998). Maternal interactive style across contexts: Relations to emotional, behavioral and physiological regulation during toddlerhood. Social Development, 7, 350369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, S. B., Cohn, J. F., & Meyers, T. (1995). Depression in first-time mothers: Mother–infant interaction and depression chronicity. Developmental Psychology, 31, 349357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, J., Marvin, R. S., & the MacArthur Attachment Working Group of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Network on the Transition from Infancy to Early Childhood. (1992). Attachment organization in preschool children: Procedures and coding manual. Unpublished manuscript, Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. R. (2010). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical application (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Ackerman, B. P., & Izard, C. E. (1995). Emotions and emotional regulation in developmental psychopathology. Developmental Psychopathology, 7, 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, W. A., Maccoby, E. F., Steinberg, L., Hetherington, E. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting: The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55, 218232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeKlyen, M., Speltz, M. L., & Greenberg, M. T. (1998). Fathering and early onset conduct problems: Positive and negative parenting, father–son attachment, and the marital context. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 1, 321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Wolff, M. S., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1997). Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment. Child Development, 68, 571591.Google ScholarPubMed
Dix, T. (1993). Attributing dispositions to children: An interactional analysis of attribution in socialization. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 633643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, T., & Buck, K. A. (2011).The emergence of approach and avoidance motivation in early development. In Campbell, L. & Loving, T. J. (Eds.), Interdisciplinary research on close relationships: The case for integration (pp. 5381). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Dix, T., Cheng, N., & Day, W. H. (2009). Connecting with parents: Mothers' depressive symptoms and responsive behaviors in the regulation of social contact by 1- and young 2-year-olds. Social Development, 18, 2450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, T., Gershoff, E. T., Meunier, L. N., & Miller, P. C. (2004). The affective structure of supportive parenting: Depressive symptoms, immediate emotions, and child-oriented motivation. Developmental Psychology, 40, 12121227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dix, T., & Lochman, J. (1990). Social cognition and negative reactions to children: A comparison of mothers of aggressive and nonaggressive boys. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 418438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, T., & Meunier, L. N. (2009). Depressive symptoms and parenting competence: An analysis of 13 regulatory processes. Developmental Review, 29, 4568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, T., Meunier, L. N., Lusk, K., & Perfect, M. (2012). Mothers' depressive symptoms and children's facial emotion: Examining the depression–inhibition hypothesis. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 195210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dix, T., Stewart, A. D., Gershoff, E. T., & Day, W. H. (2007). Autonomy and children's reactions to being controlled: Evidence that both compliance and defiance may be positive markers in early development. Child Development, 78, 12041221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dougherty, L. R., Klein, D. N., Rose, S., & Laptook, R. S. (2011). Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis reactivity in the preschool-age offspring of depressed parents: Moderation by early parenting. Psychological Science, 22, 650658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downey, G., & Coyne, J. C. (1990). Children of depressed parents: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 5076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egeland, B., Kalkoske, M., Gottesman, N., & Erickson, M. F. (1990). Preschool behavior problems: Stability and factors accounting for change. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 31, 891910.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Murphy, B. C. (1996). Parents' reactions to children's negative emotions: Relation to children's social competence and comforting behavior. Child Development, 67, 22272247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman, R., Greenbaum, C. W., & Yirmiya, N. (1999). Mother–infant affect synchrony as an antecedent of the emergence of self control. Developmental Psychology, 35, 223231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman, R., & Masalha, S. (2007). The role of culture in moderating the links between early ecological risk and young children's adaptation. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feng, X., Shaw, D. S., Kovacs, M., Lane, T., O'Rourke, F. E., & Alarcon, J. H. (2008). Emotion regulation in preschoolers: The roles of behavioral inhibition, maternal affective behavior, and maternal depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 132141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forget-Dubois, N., Boivin, M., Dionne, G., Pierce, T., Tremblay, R. E., & Perusse, D. (2007). A longitudinal twin study of the genetic and environmental etiology of maternal hostile–reactive behavior during infancy and toddlerhood. Infant Behavior and Development, 30, 453465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gartstein, M. A., & Bateman, A. E. (2008). Early manifestations of childhood depression: Influences of infant temperament and parental depressive symptoms. Infant and Child Development, 17, 223248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gianino, A., & Tronick, E. Z. (1988). The mutual regulation model: The infant's self and interactive regulation and coping and defensive capacities. In Field, T. M., McCabe, P. M., & Schneiderman, N. (Eds.), Stress and coping across development (pp. 4768). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Goodman, S. H., & Brand, S. R. (2009). Depression and early adverse experiences. In Gotlib, I. H. & Hammen, C. L. (Eds.), Handbook of depression (2nd ed., pp. 249274). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, S. H., Rouse, M. H., Connell, A. M., Broth, M. R., Hall, C. M., & Heyward, D. (2011). Maternal depression and child psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14, 127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hagan, M. J., Roubinov, D. S., Gress-Smith, J., Luecken, L. J., Sandler, I. N., & Wolchik, S. (2011). Positive parenting during childhood moderates the impact of recent negative events on cortisol activity in parentally bereaved youth. Psychopharmacology, 214, 231238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanington, L., Ramchandani, P., & Stein, A. (2010). Parental depression and child temperament: Assessing child to parent effects in a longitudinal population study. Infant Behavior and Development, 33, 8895.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayden, E. P., Klein, D. N., Dougherty, L. R., Olino, T. M., Laptook, R. S., Dyson, M. W., et al. (2010). The dopamine D2 receptor gene and depressive and anxious symptoms in childhood: Associations and evidence for gene–environment correlation and gene–environment interaction. Psychiatric Genetics, 20, 304310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogan, A. E., Scott, K. G., & Bauer, C. R. (1992). The Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI): A new assessment of social competence in high-risk three-year-olds. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 10, 230239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, J. L., & Wille, D. E. (1984). Influence of attachment and separation experience on separation distress at 18 months. Developmental Psychology, 20, 477484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karreman, A., van Tuijl, C., van Aken, M. A. G., & Dekovic, M. (2006). Parenting and self-regulation in preschoolers: A meta-analysis. Infant and Child Development, 15, 561579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiff, C. J., Lengua, L. J., & Zalewski, M. (2011). Nature and nurturing: Parenting in the context of child temperament. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 14, 251301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G. (1997). Mutually responsive orientation between mothers and their young children: Implications for early socialization. Child Development, 68, 94112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., Coy, K. C., & Murray, K. T. (2001). The development of self-regulation in the first four years of life. Child Development, 72, 10911111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., & Murray, K. (2000). Mother–child mutually responsive orientation and conscience development: From toddler to early school age. Child Development, 71, 417431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., Kuczynski, L., Radke-Yarrow, M., & Welch, J. D. (1987). Resolution of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 441456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lahey, B. B., Conger, R. D., Atkeson, B. M., & Treiber, F. A. (1984). Parenting behavior and emotional status of physically abusive mothers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 52, 10621071.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, C. L., & Bates, J. E. (1985). Mother–child interaction at age 2 years and perceived difficult temperament. Child Development, 56, 13141325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lerner, J. V., & Lerner, R. M. (1994). Explorations of the goodness-of-fit model in early adolescence. In Carey, W. B. & McDevitt, S. C. (Eds.), Prevention and early intervention: Individual differences as risk factors for the mental health of children (pp. 161169). New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Lim, J, Wood, B. L., Miller, B. D., & Simmens, S. J. (2011). Effects of paternal and maternal depressive symptoms on child internalizing symptoms and asthma disease activity: Mediation by interparental negativity and parenting. Journal of Family Psychology, 25, 137146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lovejoy, M. C., Graczyk, P. A., O'Hare, E., & Neuman, G. (2000). Maternal depression and parenting behavior: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 561592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent–child interaction. In Mussen, P. H. (Series Ed.) & Hetherington, E. M. (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (pp. 1101). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Monroe, S. M., & Simons, A. D. (1991). Diathesis–stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications for the depressive disorders. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 406425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Sessa, F. M., Avenevoli, S., & Essex, M. J. (2002). Temperamental vulnerability and negative parenting as interacting factors in child adjustment. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 64, 461471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, D., Judd, C. M., & Vincent, V. Y. (2005). When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 852863.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neiderhiser, J. M., Reiss, D., Pedersen, N. L., Lichtenstein, P., Spotts, E. L., Hansson, K., et al. (2004). Genetic and environmental influences on mothering of adolescents: A comparison of two samples. Developmental Psychology, 40, 335351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1999). Chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms, maternal sensitivity, and child functioning at 36 months. Developmental Psychology, 35, 12971310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, E. B., & Shaw, D. S. (2003). Predicting growth curves of externalizing behavior across the preschool years. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 575590.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paulussen-Hoogeboom, M. C., Stams, G. J. J. M., Hermanns, J. M. A., & Peetsma, T. T. D. (2007). Child negative emotionality and parenting from infancy to preschool: A meta-analytic review. Developmental Psychology, 43, 438453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paulussen-Hoogeboom, M. C., Stams, G. J. J. M., Hermanns, J. M. A., & Peetsma, T. T. D. (2008). Relations among child negative emotionality, parenting stress, and maternal sensitive responsiveness in early childhood. Parenting: Science and Practice, 8, 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pluess, M., & Belsky, J. (2010). Differential susceptibility to parenting and quality child care. Developmental Psychology, 46, 379390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Punamaki, R., Samir, Q., & Sarraj, E. E. (1997). Models of traumatic experiences and children's psychological adjustment: The roles of perceived parenting and the children's own resources and activity. Child Development, 64, 718728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (1998). Temperament. In Damon, W. & Lerner, R. M. (Series Eds.) & Eisenberg, N. (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., pp. 99156). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Scarr, S., & McCartney, K. (1983). How people make their own environments: A theory of genotype → environment effect. Child Development, 54, 424435.Google Scholar
Schafer, J. L., & Olsen, M. K. (1998). Multiple imputation for multivariate missing-data problems: A data analyst's perspective. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 33, 545571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shipman, K. L., & Zeman, J. (2001). Socialization of children's emotion regulation in mother–child dyads: A developmental psychopathological perspective. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 317336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shouldice, A. E., & Stevenson-Hinde, J. (1992). Coping with separation distress: The Separation Anxiety Test and attachment classification at 4.5 years. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 331348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slep, A. M., & O'Leary, S. G. (2007). Multivariate models of mothers' and fathers' aggression toward their children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75, 739751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N., Gaertner, B., Popp, T., Smith, C. L., Kupfer, A., et al. (2007). Relations of maternal socialization and toddlers' effortful control to children's adjustment and social competence. Developmental Psychology, 43, 11701186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stright, A. D., Gallagher, K. C., & Kelley, K. (2008). Infant temperament moderates relations between maternal parenting in early childhood and children's adjustment in first grade. Child Development, 79, 186200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teti, D. M., & Gelfand, D. M. (1991). Behavioral competence among mothers of infants in the first year: The mediational role of maternal self-efficacy. Child Development, 62, 918929.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teti, D. M., Gelfand, D. M., & Pompa, J. (1990). Depressed mothers' behavioral competence with their infants: Demographic and psychosocial correlates. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 259270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, A., & Chess, S. (1977). Temperament and development. New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
van Aken, C., Junger, M., Verhoeven, M.van Aken, M. A. G., & Dekovic, M. (2007). The interactive effects of temperament and maternal parenting on toddlers' externalizing behaviors. Infant and Child Development, 16, 553572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasta, R. (1982). Physical child abuse: A dual-component analysis. Developmental Review, 2, 125149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winer, B. J. (1971). Statistical principles in experimental design (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw–Hill.Google Scholar