Is maternal depression related to mother and adolescent reports of family functioning?☆

Abstract

While adolescent-parent disagreements about family functioning are common, they may also be indicative of family members' health problems and may compromise adolescent adjustment. This study examines the association between maternal depressive symptoms and family functioning perceptions, considering both the adolescents' and their mothers' points of view. A sample of 943 Chilean dyads of adolescents (69% female, Mage = 14.43 years old) and their mothers (Mage = 43.20 years) reported their perceptions of family cohesion and adaptability. Mothers also reported their depressive symptoms. Results indicated that mothers perceived their family as more cohesive and more adaptable than their children. There was a negative association between maternal and adolescent reports of family cohesion and maternal depressive symptoms. In the mother' reports, this association depended on adolescent's age. In the case of adolescents' reports, this association depended on adolescent's gender. Finally, maternal depressive symptoms were a significant predictor of mother-adolescent agreement about family cohesion.Depression is a mental illness with a high international prevalence (Marcus, Yasamy, Ommeren, Chisholm, & Saxena, 2012). In Chile, 25.7% of women reported depressive symptoms in a national health survey (MINSAL, 2009(MINSAL, -2010. This percentage was 27.9% in the 25-45 age group and 30.1% in the 45-64 age group. It is likely that women belonging to these age groups are mothers of adolescent children.De Los Reyes and Kazdin (2005) have shown that depressed mothers have a negative bias in the perception of their children's emotional status and behavior, overestimating their adjustment problems. Similarly, Goodman (2007) suggested that depressed mothers have a negative vision of themselves in their maternal role. In line with these findings, the "Depression-distortion" hypothesis (DDH) states that depressed mothers overestimate their children's symptomatology (see Richters, 1992 for a review). However, it has been claimed that the DDH lacks empirical support owing to methodological deficiencies in the studies that have been developed to prove it (see Richters, 1992). Richters (1992) suggested that there is an association between maternal depression and mental health problems in children, rather than a distorted perception held by mothers about their children's mental health. In line with this suggestion, a meta-analysis (Goodman et al., 2011) indicated that maternal depression is associated with higher levels of internalization, externalization, and general psychopathology in children and adolescents, although to a small magnitude.Family functioning has been highlighted as a plausible mediating mechanism in the relationship between maternal depression and maladjustment in children and adolescents (Goodman,

Parental Psychological Control: Maternal, Adolescent, and Contextual Predictors

“…For example, adults report being more accepting and/or less controlling than their children report, or perceiving a more cohesive family unit than their adolescent children. In a Chilean sample, Pérez et al (2018) found that mothers perceived their family as more cohesive and more adaptable than their adolescents. This can be understood in light of the different developmental stages adolescents and their mothers are facing ( Bengston and Kuypers, 1971 ).…”

Associations between maternal depressive symptoms, children’s behavioral problems and perceptions regarding family interactions

“…The same was true for the children living with maternal depressive symptoms, compared to the children who did not live with this condition. These findings suggest that in the presence of maternal depression, mothers and children tend to perceive their family interactions in a less favorable way, as evidenced by previous studies (Pérez et al, 2018;Daches et al, 2018) and by the meta-analysis of Lovejoy et al (2000). In this study, authors analyzed observational studies, reporting that negative family interactions may represent an important factor by which maternal depressive symptoms confer a risk for the presence of more behavioral problems in children.…”

“…Although disagreements between parents and children regarding family interactions are to some extent expected, they may also be related to the presence of maternal mental health problems, especially maternal depression, which is recognized as interfering in the perception of the family functioning and parental practices. In this sense, Pérez, Coo, and Irarrázaval (2018) analyzed the associations between the symptoms of maternal depression and the perceptions of mothers and their children about the family functioning, in terms of family cohesion and adaptation, evaluated by the mothers and children through The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales. The authors reported that mothers perceived their families as more cohesive and adapted, compared to their children, however, higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower cohesion and family adaptation reported by both mothers and children.…”

Linking Foster Family Characteristics and Mental Health Symptoms of Youth in Care

“…Research suggests that caregivers and youth offer different perspectives on characteristics from the family environment (De Los Reyes & Ohannessian, 2016 ; Daches et al, 2018 ), with caregivers reporting higher levels of cohesion than youth reporters (Pérez et al, 2018 ). Consistent with predictions for Aim 2 and in line with past literature, the results from the current study indicate that youths and caregivers endorsed statistically different scores for family cohesion, with caregivers reporting higher scores on cohesion than youth.…”

“…This limits our understanding of the constructs to one person’s perspective. In fact, more recent work suggests that caregivers and youths often differ on their perceptions of family environment (De Los Reyes & Ohannessian, 2016 ; Daches et al, 2018 ; Pérez et al, 2018 ), with caregivers reporting higher levels of cohesion than youth reporters (Pérez et al, 2018 ). A review of informant discrepancy indicates that low to moderate agreement between adolescent and parent reporters is typical, even when they “provide reports of family functioning domains that, by definition, occur within the same context of observation (i.e., the family unit)” (pp.…”