Mothers' Depressive Symptoms and Child Externalizing Problems: Aversion Sensitivity as an Underlying Mechanism

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    Abstract

    Background: The mechanisms responsible for why depressed parenting undermines child development are poorly understood. One proposal is that depressive symptoms increase mothers' aversion sensitivity, thereby increasing the frequency of mothers' negative emotional arousal. Objective: This study examined aversion sensitivity as a marker of maladaptive emotional processes occurring in depressed mothers to explain why mothers' depressive symptoms so consistently disrupt child behavior. Method: During a 2-year period, mothers' depressive symptoms and children's externalizing problems were measured repeatedly; interactions between mothers and their 4- to 11-year-old children were observed (Ndyad = 284). Results: Results demonstrated that mothers' aversion sensitivity mediated the relation between mothers' depressive symptoms and child externalizing problems in the next assessment. Conclusion: Aversion sensitivity may underlie depression-related parenting problems. It has the potential to clarify why depressive symptoms predict dysfunctional parenting and, as a result, developmental problems in children. Implications: Aversion sensitivity has the potential to elucidate how and why depressive adaptations to a large number of personal and social circumstances reduce parenting competence and predict developmental problems in children.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1087-1099
    Number of pages13
    JournalFamily Relations
    Volume69
    Issue number5
    Early online date1 Jul 2020
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1 Dec 2020

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2020 National Council on Family Relations

    Funding

    This research was supported by grant 1‐5 R01 HD41463‐01A1 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Edward R. Anderson and Shannon M. Greene.

    FundersFunder number
    National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

      Keywords

      • child externalizing problems
      • emotion
      • maternal depression
      • parenting
      • parent–child interactions

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