Affective Functioning Among Early Adolescents at High and Low Familial Risk for Depression and Their Mothers: A Focus on Individual and Transactional Processes across Contexts

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize affective functioning in families of youth at high familial risk for depression, with particular attention to features of affective functioning that appear to be critical to adaptive functioning but have been underrepresented in prior research including: positive and negative affect across multiple contexts, individual and transactional processes, and affective flexibility. Interactions among early adolescents (ages 9-14) and their mothers were coded for affective behaviors across both positive and negative contexts. Primary analyses compared never-depressed youth at high (n=44) and low (n=57) familial risk for depression. The high risk group showed a relatively consistent pattern for low positive affect across negative and positive contexts at both the individual and transactional level. In contrast to prior studies focusing on negative affect that did not support disruptions in negative affect, the data from this study suggest variability by context: (i.e. increased negativity in a positive, but not negative, context) and individual vs. transactional processes (e.g., negative escalation). Findings are discussed in concert with attention to affect flexibility, contextual and transactional factors.

Maternal Depression, Parenting, and Youth Depressive Symptoms: Mediation and Moderation in a Short-Term Longitudinal Study

“…For example, the presence of negative behaviors in a positive context may convey greater risk than negative behaviors in a negative context because, despite being primed for pleasant affect, the behaviors may be more salient and model maladaptive functioning. This is consistent with our previous finding (McMakin et al, 2011) that higher levels of maternal negative interaction behaviors in positive, but not negative, contexts for mothers with a history of depression relative to never depressed mothers. Thus, we explore whether behaviors in negative or positive contexts predict youth depressive symptoms, which was not examined in our previous report.…”

“…Mothers are rated on a five-point Likert scale with half-point intervals (1 extremely uncharacteristic to 5 extremely characteristic) for individual affective behaviors. As the present study builds on the cross-sectional work in McMakin et al (2011), we relied on the same observational codes: Positive Affect, Problem Solving, Support/Validation, Negative Affect, Dominance, Conflict, and Withdrawal. Each code was rated separately in each context.…”

“…The present study builds on the cross-sectional comparisons presented by McMakin et al (2011) and examines processes through which affective parenting behaviors and parental history of depression are associated with the development of youth depressive symptoms over the course of 18 months. As data suggest that the influence of maternal depressive disorder may be stronger than the influences of paternal depression (Connell & Goodman, 2002), we focus on maternal depression and parenting behaviors.…”

“…This work identifies aspects of parenting that differs between depressed and non-depressed parents. More recently, McMakin et al (2011) examined cross-sectional differences in seven dimensions of maternal behaviors among high- and low-risk parent-child dyads. Mothers and their children completed positive planning and conflict discussion tasks.…”

Practitioner Review: Dysphoria and its regulation in child and adolescent depression

“…In a longitudinal study of 1- to 9-year-old high-risk offspring (n=117) and low-risk peers (n=95), the groups displayed similar developmental trajectories of negative affect across the years, but high-risk offspring had consistently lower levels of positive affect than controls (Olino, Lopez-Duran et al, 2011). This finding complements results from cross-sectional studies, which showed lower levels of positive affect among high-risk offspring than among controls in experimental situations, including in samples of: 1- to 8-year-olds (Shaw et al, 2006), 3- to 4-year-olds (Durbin, Klein, Hayden, Buckley, & Moerk, 2005), 9- to 14-year-olds (McMakin, Burkhouse et al, 2011), and 8- to 17-year-olds (Dietz et al, 2008). Importantly, (compared to affect in low-risk offspring), attenuated positive affect persisted across different laboratory contexts according to high-risk 9- to 14-year-olds and their mothers (McMakin, Burkhouse et al, 2011).…”