The impact of support network substitution on low-income women's health: Are minor children beneficial substitutes?

Analysis of Studies on Social Support and Children of Depressed Mothers: A Systematic Review

“…The sample size varied from 40 to 7,429 dyads with a median of 2,945 dyads. Most studies (23; 85.18%) were performed using community samples, and the samples used in five studies (18.51%) were considered high risk because they were mainly composed of low-income families (AllenMeares, Blazevski, Bybee, & Oyserman, 2010;Criss, Shaw, Moilanen, Hitchings, & Ingoldsby, 2009;Fatori, Bordin, Curto, & de Paula, 2013;Goosby, 2007;Mickelson & Demmings, 2009). Most of the participants in the studies were White Caucasian, and the studies were conducted in the following countries: USA (16), UK (3), Brazil (3), India (2), Canada (2), Norway (1) and Finland (1).…”

“…Three cross-sectional studies included young childhood to adolescents (Gerkensmeyer, Perkins, Day, et al, 2011;Gerkensmeyer, Perkins, Scott, & Wu, 2008;Mickelson & Demmings, 2009). Most longitudinal studies monitored young children; among these studies, five focused on the behavior of children from 6 to 7.5 years old (Anhalt, Telzrow, & Brown, 2007;Ashman, Dawson, & Panagiotides, 2008;Barker, Copeland, Maughan, Jaffee, & Uher, 2012;Campbell, Matestic, von Stauffenberg, Mohan, & Kirchner, 2007;Heberle, Krill, Briggs-Gowan, & Carter, 2014), and the other six studies examined 12-to 13-year-old children (Barker & Maughan, 2009;Criss et al, 2009;Fatori et al, 2013;Gross et al, 2009;Hart, Atkins, & Matsuba, 2008;Karevold, Roysamb, Ystrom, & Mathiesen, 2009).…”

“…The trajectories of maternal depression with regard to severity and chronicity (Ashman et al, 2008;Campbell et al, 2007;Fatori et al, 2013;Gross et al, 2009;Parent, Jones, Forehand, Cuellar, & Shoulberg, 2013;Wang et al, 2013;Zanca, Pizeta, Osório, & Loureiro, 2013) and the presence of comorbidities, especially those related to anxiety (Barker & Maughan, 2009;Boyd & Tervo-Clemmens, 2013;Fatori et al, 2013;Karevold et al, 2009;Lau, Rijsdijk, Gregory, McGuffin, & Eley, 2007;Mickelson & Demmings, 2009;Piché, Bergeron, Cyr, & Berthiaume, 2011), were identified as contextual risk factors for maternal clinical conditions. Twelve studies addressed negative parental practices including negligence, physical and psychological abuse, lax discipline, inconsistent punishment, and negative monitoring.…”

“…Regarding the informants, eight studies used the mother as the sole source of information (Anhalt et al, 2007;Barker & Maughan, 2009;Boyd & Tervo-Clemmens, 2013;Gerkensmeyer, Perkins, Day, et al, 2011;Gerkensmeyer, Perkins, Scott, et al, 2008;Goosby, 2007;Mickelson & Demmings, 2009;Zanca et al, 2013), and 13 studies did not specify the mothers' depression status at the time of data collection (Barker et al, 2012;Barker & Maughan, 2009;Brown et al, 2013;Criss et al, 2009;Dubois-Comtois et al, 2013;Goosby, 2007;Hart et al, 2008;Heberle et al, 2014;Karevold et al, 2009;Lau et al, 2007;Lengua et al, 2008;Piché et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2013). Because depressive symptoms may affect the quality of mothers' reports, implying a potential methodological problem that limits the validity of the information provided, 18 studies employed multiple respondents including not only mothers but also children, fathers, and teachers, which increased the validity of the findings.…”

“…The samples of five studies (Allen-Meares et al, 2010;Criss et al, 2009;Fatori et al, 2013;Goosby, 2007;Mickelson & Demmings, 2009) were considered high risk because they were mostly composed of families with low socioeconomic status. These families might have introduced a pre-established condition of combined risks into the analysis.…”