Coping and parenting: Mediators of 12-month outcomes of a family group cognitive–behavioral preventive intervention with families of depressed parents.

Abstract

In a randomized clinical trial with 111 families of parents with a history of major depressive disorder (86% mothers; 86% Caucasian), changes in adolescents’ (mean age 11 years; 42% female) coping and parents’ parenting skills were examined as mediators of the effects of a family group cognitive behavioral preventive intervention on adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Changes in hypothesized mediators were assessed at 6-months and changes in adolescents’ symptoms were measured at 12-month follow-up. Significant differences favoring the family intervention as compared with a written information comparison condition were found for changes in composite measures of parent-adolescent reports of adolescents’ use of secondary control coping skills and direct observations of parents’ positive parenting skills. Changes in adolescents’ secondary control coping and positive parenting mediated the effects of the intervention on depressive, internalizing and externalizing symptoms accounting for approximately half of the effect of the intervention on the outcomes. Further, reciprocal relations between children’s internalizing symptoms and parenting were found from baseline to 6-month follow-up. Implications for the prevention of psychopathology in offspring of depressed parents are highlighted.

Parent-adolescent Discrepancies Regarding Adolescent Psychopathology and its Relation to Parental Characteristics in a Clinical Sample

“…Previous studies showed that maternal depressive symptoms were related to more negative and less positive behaviors (Dietz et al, 2008;Foster, Garber, & Durlak, 2008) and harsh negative parenting was related to higher levels of depressive symptoms in children (Dallaire et al, 2006). Research using community samples showed that maladaptive parental behavior is associated with an increased risk to develop general psychiatric disorders or internalizing disorders in children of parents with general psychiatric disorders, suggesting the mediating role of maladaptive parental behavior (Compas et al, 2010;Johnson et al, 2001). This study showed that parenting factors contributed to the discrepancy between adolescents and parents for affective problems and expanded on previous studies that suggest parenting behaviors as a mediating link between parental depression and children's psychopathology.…”

Maternal Psychological Control, Use of Supportive Parenting, and Childhood Depressive Symptoms

“…Contrary to expectations and previous studies which found positive parenting to be negatively associated with child depressive symptoms Compas et al, 2010), no significant association between this parenting variable and either reporter's endorsement of child depressive symptoms was evident. Nevertheless, this finding is not altogether surprising.…”

“…These behaviors serve to establish in the child a positive view of the self and of the world. The use of positive parenting practices has been linked to lower rates of externalizing behavior (Boeldt, Rhee, DiLalla, Mullineaux, Schulz-Heik, Corley, … & Hewitt, 2012;Healey, Flory, Miller, & Halperin, 2011;Tolou-Shams, Paikoff, McKirnan, & Holmbeck, 2007) in addition to lower rates of child depressive symptoms Compas, Champion, Forehand, Cole, Reeslund, Fear, … & Roberts, 2010;Gaté, Watkins, Simmons, Byrne, Schwartz, Whittle, … & Allen, 2013). …”

The effects of psychological treatment of maternal depression on children and parental functioning: a meta-analysis

“…Does reducing parents' depression directly decrease family stress or improve parenting behaviors? For example, increasing observed positive parenting behaviors of depressed parents during parent-child interactions has been found to reduce the rates of depression and other psychopathology in their children [7]. Whether or not these parenting changes were the direct result of decreases in parents' depression needs to be studied further in a randomized controlled trial.…”