Although much has been written about the utility of applying transactional models to the study of parenting practices, relatively few researchers have used such an approach to examine how children influence maternal wellbeing throughout their development. Using a sample of males from predominantly low-income families, the current study explored reciprocal relations between boys' overt disruptive behavior (boys' ages 5 to 10 years) and maternal depressive symptoms. We then examined this model with youth-reported antisocial behaviors (ASB) and maternal depressive symptoms when the boys were older, ages 10 to 15. In middle childhood, evidence was found for both maternal and child effects from boys' ages 5 to 6 using both maternal and alternative caregiver report of child aggressive behavior. In the early adolescence model, consistent maternal effects were found, and child effects were evident during the transition to adolescence (boys' ages 11 to 12). The findings are discussed in reference to reciprocal models of child development and prevention efforts to reduce both maternal depression and the prevalence of child antisocial behavior.
KeywordsMaternal depression; Externalizing behavior; Antisocial behavior; Reciprocal effects; Transactional model Parental psychopathology has been found to be a consistent and robust correlate of children's maladjustment (DelBello and Geller 2001;Goodman and Brumley 1990;Lapalme et al. 1997). Due to the prevalence of depression, especially in women, maternal depression has been the focus of numerous research studies on parental psychopathology and its association with child psychopathology. Findings in the extant literature provide substantial evidence for an association between maternal depression and negative child outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing child problem behaviors (for reviews of this literature, see Beardslee et al. 1998;Cummings and Davies 1994;Gelfand and Teti 1990).In addition to research on the relation between maternal depression and different forms of child psychopathology, associations have been found between child characteristics and parental behavior (Bell and Harper 1977;Elgar et al. 2004;Lytton 1990). Rather than consider parent effects on children and child effects on parents to be separate processes, reciprocal models of socialization regard parenting behaviors and child characteristics as recurrent, transactional exchanges over time, where both parties affect the other (Bell 1968;Sameroff 1995). Whereas there is an extensive body of research on reciprocal effects between child disruptive behavior and aspects of parenting (Bell and Harper 1977;Danforth et al. 1991
NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript 2001), substantially less attention has been paid to potential bidirectional effects between child disruptive behavior and parental mental health, such as depressive symptoms, over time. As the social and economic cost of adult depression and its association with negative child outcomes is high (Pin...