We found mothers' history of depression and symptoms of depression among their adolescent children were both associated with the type of events that mothers made adolescents feel guilty about and with the mothers' reactions to those events. Adolescents (20 male, 23 female) described incidents in which their mothers made them feel guilty and what happened afterward. Offspring of mothers with (versus without) a history of depression more often reported guilt when not at fault and over failing to meet maternal needs; reactions did not resolve matters and involved unregulated maternal emotions. Adolescents of mothers without a depression history more often felt guilty about specific events (e.g., breaking rules, bad grades) and reactions resulted in closure (through discipline, apologies, or forgiveness). Adolescents' depressive symptoms were more severe when incidents were unresolved and involved maternal emotions and less severe when incidents were specific. In addition, maternal use of self-serving forms of guilt induction related to adolescent and parent depression.

Risk factors for schizophrenia, such as genetic vulnerability and obstetric complications, have been associated with cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. We tested the association of these risk factors with general intellectual ability in offspring at high risk for psychoses and normal control subjects. Offspring of 182 parents with DSM-IV schizophrenia or affective psychoses were recruited and diagnosed from the Boston and Providence cohorts of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project (NCPP). Control subjects from the NCPP were selected to be comparable with affected parents based on the parent's age, ethnicity, study site, number of offspring enrolled in the NCPP, and payment status, and on the offspring's age, sex, and history of obstetric complications. Based on data prospectively acquired from pregnancy and events of gestation, labor, delivery, and the neonatal period, we derived a measure of probable hypoxic-ischemic insult. We also report on standardized measures of general intelligence (intelligence quotient [IQ]) collected at age 7. General linear mixed models were used to test for the simultaneous effects of genetic vulnerability, defined as parental diagnosis, and probable hypoxic insult on age 7 IQ. Specificity of the effects for schizophrenia compared with affective psychoses and sex effects were also tested. Low IQ at age 7 was significantly associated with genetic vulnerability to psychoses, in particular with schizophrenia.

Objective It is generally accepted that children of parents with schizophrenia or other forms of psychosis are at heightened risk for a range of behavioral problems. However, it remains unclear whether offspring of parents with different forms of psychosis (e.g., schizophrenia, other non-affective psychoses, and affective psychoses) have distinct forms of behavioral problems (i.e., internalizing and externalizing). Method Behavioral observations at ages 4 and 7 years of children of parents with psychosis (n = 281) and parents without psychosis (n=188) were examined. Results There were no significant differences between groups in behavior observed at age 4. At age 7, compared to children of unaffected parents, children of parents with psychosis had an adjusted odds ratio of 2.8 (95% CI = 1.5, 5.6) for externalizing problems, in particular for children of parents with schizophrenia (adjusted OR = 4.4; 95% CI = 1.7, 12.5). This increase in risk for externalizing problems was observed for females only (adjusted OR = 8.1; 95% CI = 2.5, 26.3). In contrast, male children were at increased risk for internalizing problems (adjusted OR = 3.6; 95% CI = 1.6, 8.3). Conclusions Children of parents with various forms of psychosis are at risk for internalizing and externalizing problems by age 7; this risk varies by gender of the offspring. Implications for treatment of parents with psychotic disorders and high-risk children are discussed.