Individual differences in symptoms of maternal depression and associations with parenting behavior

Abstract

Links between global levels of maternal depressive symptoms and parenting behavior in early childhood are well established. However, depression is a heterogeneous disorder and little is known about how individual differences in depression symptoms may be differentially associated with different types of parenting behavior. We aimed to uncover nuance in the relationship between depression and parenting behavior by examining individual differences in symptoms of maternal depression and associations with parenting behavior with 2- and 3-year-old children. Participants included 714 diverse, low-income mothers and their 2-year-old children. Maternal depression symptoms were self-reported at child age 2. Three domains of parenting behavior (harsh, positive, and disengaged) were coded from mother-child interactions at ages 2 and 3. Individual differences in maternal depressive symptoms at child age 2 comprised five profiles: low, interpersonal rejection, moderate, high depressed affect and physical, and severe. Women with the high depressed affect and physical profile demonstrated the greatest risk for parenting challenges with higher levels of harsh parenting at child age 2 compared to all other profiles and higher levels of disengaged parenting at child age 3 compared to the low, moderate, and severe profiles. Unexpectedly, positive parenting did not differ by maternal depression profile at either age. There is wide heterogeneity in symptoms of depression among mothers of 2-year-old children that is clinically relevant for different dimensions of parenting. Physical and depressed affect symptoms in particular may present risk for harsh parenting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1.

5-profile conditional model of depression symptoms. CES-D=Center for Epidemiological Studies on Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). (rev)=reverse scored item. Positive affect items include Happy, Enjoy life, As good, and Hopeful. Depressed affect items include Blues, Depressed, Crying, Sad, and Lonely. Interpersonal items include People unfriendly and People dislike. Physical items include Bothered, Appetite, Effort, Sleep, and Get going. The items Failure, Talk less, Concentrate, and Fearful do not belong to a subscale on the CES-D but are included in the total score.