The Effects of Parental Mood on Reports of Their Children’s Psychopathology

Abstract

Objective In this study, we aim to assess whether current mood state (depressed or manic/hypomanic) among parents with a mood disorder affects their reports of their offspring's psychopathology. Method Sixty-five parents with current depression, 42 with current mania/hypomania, 181 with mood disorder in remission, and their offspring (n=479, ages 6-18) completed assessments of offspring IP psychopathology as part of the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study (BIOS). We compared rates of offspring psychopathology assessed using the following: a clinician-administered semi-structured interview with parent and child using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children (K-SADS); parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL); offspring self-reported Youth Self Reports (YSR) for those 11 years and older (n=250); and teachers’ reports when available (n= 209). Results There were no between-group differences in rates of psychopathology yielded from the K-SADS, except for more depressive disorders in offspring of parents with current mania/hypomania compared to offspring of parents in remission. Conversely, using the CBCL and comparing with parents who were in remission, parents with current depression reported significantly more externalizing psychopathology in offspring, whereas parents with current mania/hypomania reported more externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in their offspring. On the YSR, offspring of parents with current mania/hypomania had more internalizing psychopathology compared to offspring of parents in remission. Teacher's reports showed no between-group differences in rates of any psychopathology. Conclusion Parental active mood symptomatology, especially during a manic/hypomanic episode, significantly affects their reports of their offspring's psychopathology. Trained interviewers reduce potential report bias. Clinicians and studies assessing children's psychopathology should take into account parental current mood state.

Caregivers' depressive symptoms and parent-report of child executive function among young children in Uganda

“…BRIEF), but not to the performance-based measures of cognition. Consistent with previous studies among non-HIV infected children (Langrock et al, 2002; Maoz et al, 2014), our multivariate analyses showed that depression scores of the caregivers were a significant predictor of the reported behavior scores only for the group of children infected with HIV. All BRIEF indices were significantly associated with caregiver’s depression symptoms, suggesting that is not a particular area of executive functioning but the parent-report as a measure that is associated with the depressive symptomatology.…”

“…Several studies suggest that mothers with depressive symptoms more frequently report behavioral and cognitive problems among their children than non-depressed mothers. Based on parental reports, maternal depression predicted more severe symptom reports among depressed youngsters (Kiss et al, 2007), higher rates of symptoms of depression/anxiety and aggression (Langrock, Compas, Keller, Merchant, & Copeland, 2002), and more externalizing psychopathology (Maoz et al, 2014) in children and adolescents.…”

“…Studies of the association between report of behavioral problems in children and maternal depression have predominantly been conducted in high-income settings with non-HIV affected populations (Hennigan et al, 2006; Kiss et al, 2007; Goodman et al, 2011; Maoz et al, 2014). Cultural practices on child upbringing can influence the expected behavior of the child (Yang, Kuo, Wang & Yang, 2014) and this could influence how parents perceive and rate their children’s cognitive abilities.…”

Prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers and child attention problems at 3–7years

“…We included maternal demoralization at each follow-up period to control for the potential impact of the mother's psychological state on how she rated her child's behavior (Maoz et al, 2014). If the demoralization measurement was missing at any of the follow-up periods (age 3, n = 2; age 4, n = 3) we imputed a score based on the average of the mother's scores from the two adjacent periods; if two scores were not available, we replaced the missing value with the single score closest in time.…”

Diary Reports of Concerns in Mothers of Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Across the First Year of Life

“…The fact that the majority of parent reports are collected from mothers is an important consideration to keep in mind, particularly with regards to depression, as the presence of maternal depressive symptoms is associated with over-reporting of a range of child behavioral problems, including the severity of ASD symptoms (Bennett et al, 2012; Fergusson, Lynskey, & Horwood, 1993; Maoz et al, 2014). Thus, it is possible that depressive symptoms amongst mothers of high-risk infants contribute to the increased frequency of concerns in the first year of life, but this has not been explicitly examined.…”