Depressed mood and speech in Chilean mothers of 5½-year-old children

Abstract

Previous research on maternal speech and depression has focused almost exclusively on how depressed mothers talk to their infants and toddlers in the U.S. and U.K., two English-speaking countries. This study considered how depressed Spanish-speaking mothers from a Latin American country talk about their preschool-age children. Five-minute speech samples were provided by 178 Chilean mothers who were asked to talk about their 5½-year-old children to a project psychologist. Maternal depressive symptomatology was measured by the Spanish-language version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). In multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), higher maternal depressed mood showed statistically significant associations with the following maternal speech characteristics: more criticisms, less laughter, fewer medium pauses, less positive satisfaction with the child's behavior or characteristics, a rating of a negative overall relationship with the child, and more crying (suggestive trend). A structural equation model confirmed these findings and found an indirect effect between laughter and criticisms: mothers with higher depressed mood who laughed less criticized their children less. The findings illustrate that depressed mood adversely affects how a group of Chilean mothers speak about their children.

Figure 1

The structural equation model shows significant pathways between maternal depressed mood and maternal speech characteristics. Single line arrows indicate direct effects. The double line arrow indicates an indirect effect. Values are standardized scores. * p < .05 ** p < .01 † p < .10